Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, the composer and piano-playing nun who died this week at the age of 99, had an extraordinary life, which included being a trailblazer for women’s equality and walking barefoot for a decade in the isolated mountains of northern Ethiopia.
Listening to one of her works can be disconcerting.
It sometimes feels like being tossed around in a small boat at sea, constantly off balance, with little to hold on to. The time signature appears to shift and the scale drifts in and out of familiarity.
The sound of the pioneering pianist reflected the way her life oscillated between parallel worlds.
She was trained in Western classical music but was equally the product of traditional Orthodox Christian chants and tunes.
Her unique musical voice led one critic, Kate Molleson, to argue that Emahoy should be included alongside more familiar names when considering great 20th Century composers.
Listen to Emahoy playing The Homeless Wanderer
As a young person, Emahoy was a free-spirited modern woman but she spent much of her later life as a reclusive.
She became a devout nun who lived a humble life in a monastery in a remote part of her country. But in an earlier time she had moved in the high society of the capital, Addis Ababa, where she performed in the court of the country’s last Emperor, Haileselassie I.
Most of her important musical works – recognisable in their complexity and apparent effortlessness – came in the 1960s and 1970s.
This was during a time when her contemporaries in Addis Ababa were blending Western beats with the Ethiopian pentatonic – or five-note – scale to create a unique fusion of sounds and styles that would later be dubbed Ethio-jazz.
The genre is marked by shuffling soul and funky music as well as big-band swing pieces.
But Emahoy’s compositions and style were distinct. They were just her and her piano producing an intimate, meditative – and unsettling – melancholy informed by a fascinating life punctuated by the momentous events her country experienced during the last century.
Image caption,Emahoy, seen in this undated picture, was once part of Addis Ababa’s glamorous high society
She was born in Addis Ababa in December 1923 into a prominent aristocratic family. Her father was a mayor of the historical city of Gondar in the country’s north.
Her given name was Yewubdar – Amharic for “the most beautiful one”- a name she used until she was ordained as a nun at the age of 21.
And with her family came privilege and opportunities.
As a child she was sent to Switzerland with her sister – the first Ethiopian girls to have been sent abroad for education. It was in a Swiss boarding school that she first encountered Western classical music and at the age of eight began playing violin and the piano.
In Europe she felt alienated. “Loneliness grew up with me like a childhood friend,” she said in a book about her father’s life written by her brother, Dawit Gebru.
Music was her consolation.
Upon her return to Ethiopia at the age of 11 she was already an outgoing young girl with an appetite for fashion. But then war and tragedy knocked.
In 1936 Benito Mussolini’s Italy invaded Ethiopia. Three members of her family were killed and she was forced into exile on an island in the Mediterranean. The killing of her relatives left a strong impression on her – later she would compose a song, The Ballad of the Spirits, in their memory.
After five years of occupation, the Italians left Ethiopia and Emahoy returned home where she began work at the ministry of foreign affairs – the first female secretary there. And she drove cars – a rarity for a woman – when the majority of Ethiopians used a horse and cart for travel.
She was determined that her gender would not get in the way.
“Even in my teenage [years] I would say: ‘What is the difference between boys and girls? They are equal,” she told music journalist Molleson for a 2017 BBC documentary about her life.
A few years later she was once again on road.
This time to the Egyptian capital, Cairo, to study music under the Polish violinist Alexander Kontorowicz.
She practised nine hours a day but it was the searing heat that she could not handle. As a consequence, she returned to the cooler climes of Addis Ababa with her teacher, who was appointed the head of the Imperial Guard Band.
While she seemed to enjoy the favours of the emperor for whom she played her music, not all in the aristocratic class were impressed. So when she was given the chance to continue her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, she was not permitted to travel – a decision for which her family blame some senior officials.
It changed the trajectory of her life.
Emahoy was heartbroken and sick to the point of being admitted to hospital. Subsequently she took a deep dive into religion. Eventually, she abandoned music – and the city – for a hilltop monastery in a remote part of northern Ethiopia.
She became a nun, shaved her head and stopped wearing shoes.
The death of the monastic community’s archbishop and problems with the soles of her feet led her to return to the capital in her 30s after 10 years of isolation, Molleson says.
She resumed playing music. She continued to shun the spotlight but her compositions took off around this time.
Image caption,After 10 years in a monastery in northern Ethiopia, Emahoy returned to the piano
Her years of solitary musings – and the dramatic episodes of her eventful life – were reflected in her compositions. Titles such as The Homeless Wanderer, Mother’s Love and Homesickness hinted at what was on her mind.
“Sadness was always next to me like a friend,” Emahoy was quoted as saying in her brother’s book.
Ethiopian music commentator Sertse Fresibhat called her early works “deep and thoughtful, [composed] at a young age” that received the adulation they deserved only decades later.
She went on to make recordings in Germany in the 1960s and early 1970s to raise money for homeless charities, but only gained notoriety in the West more recently.
Much like her contemporary Ethio-jazz musicians, she was introduced to the wider audience by French musicologist Francis Falceto. His series of Éthiopiques albums were compilations of archive music from the 1960s and 1970s.
Image caption,Éthiopiques volume 21 gave Emahoy’s music a whole new group of fans
Her collection, released in 2006, gained acclaim and led to her work being used in films and adverts.
But by that time she was living in an Ethiopian Orthodox Church monastery in Jerusalem, Israel.
In 1984, when Ethiopia was in the midst of a civil war and in the grips of a Marxist military regime, she left for the Holy Land and lived the remainder of her life there.
She continued to practise and compose and in her new-found fame welcomed musicologists and critics to discuss her work. She also enlisted Israeli pianist Maya Dunietz to take her manuscripts, and get them published.
In her home country she is often referred as “the Piano Queen”.
Her tunes are everywhere – some are played during periods of national mourning, while others provide background for audio books and radio shows.
But it is possible that many are unaware that they are her compositions.
They have a sense of timelessness that will no doubt continue to find ears and an audience thrilled to learn more about her near-100-year life.
Source: BBC
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
An official has reported that due to ongoing disputes between military factions, Sudanese authorities have postponed the signature of an agreement intended to restart a short-lived democratic transition that was scheduled for Saturday.
Spokesman for the negotiation process Khalid Omar Yousif said on Twitter on Saturday that military and civilian parties have unanimously agreed to “redouble efforts to overcome the remaining obstacle within a few days and pave the way for the signing of the final political agreement on April 6”.
The signing of the accord was delayed due to a lack of “consensus on some outstanding issues”, Yousif said earlier in the day.
A coup in October 2021 led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had derailed the process that began following the 2019 removal of General Omar al-Bashir.
Representatives have been negotiating an agreement for weeks, the final part in a two-phase political process launched in December to set out the terms for reviving the transition to civilian-led rule and democratic elections.
Reform of the security forces is a key point of contention in the talks, which envisage an exit of generals from politics once a civilian government is installed.
The December deal, decried by critics as “vague”, was agreed by Burhan with multiple factions after near-weekly protests since the 2021 coup.
The proposed reforms include the integration into the regular army of the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Burhan’s deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
Created in 2013, the RSF emerged from the Popular Defence Forces, sometimes called “Janjaweed”, that al-Bashir unleashed a decade earlier in the western region of Darfur against non-Arab rebels. The militia has since been accused by rights groups of having committed war crimes.
While experts have pointed to worrying rivalries between Burhan and Daglo, the two men appeared side by side last week, speaking in the capital Khartoum to plead for successful integration.
But talks have stalled since, according to observers, with persistent disputes over a timetable for the RSF’s integration.
Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum said “the army wants the group to be integrated into it by the end of the two-year transitional period.
“They also want an assessment of the officers and the ranks of the officers of the RSF saying that needs to be reassessed because they have not joined the military academy and they have been promoted in standards that were not compatible with the standards of the army.
“When it comes to the issue of integrating the RSF, which has been repeatedly saying that it is part of the military, that comes down to the military and the RSF amongst themselves. A technical committee is working to try to reach an agreement in the next five days so that a final deal is signed by April 6,” Morgan said.
An oil and gas conglomerate, Conoil Producing Limited, owned by Nigerian billionaire Mike Adenuga, has been sued by Eastline Energy Resources Limited, a Nigerian-owned oil and gas servicing company, for failing to pay its debts to the former.
Managing Director of Eastline Energy Resources Limited Obioma Chimechefulem disclosed in a recent statement that Conoil owes his company the sum of $774,789.00 for services rendered on its behalf, for which payment has yet to be made despite repeated requests.
“Eastline is categorically owed the sum of $774,789.00 (Seven Hundred and Seventy-Four Thousand, Seven Hundred and Eighty-Nine US Dollars only) for works carried out on behalf of Conoil & for which payment, even after repeated pleas, has still not been made. We have suffered immeasurably working for Conoil to the point where our equipment was seized by another contractor in order to force Conoil to pay them,” the statement reads. The company, which h0as been a contractor of choice to Conoil thanks to its industry-leading skill sets and competence in the areas of surface well testing, brine filtration, well completion, flow back, and early production services, among many others, emphasized that its inability to access high-quality equipment has resulted in significant financial losses.
Right now, it is seeking no more than what it is rightfully owed for services rendered.
The lawsuit follows allegations made against Conoil in March 2022 by a group of local oil contractors, who accused the oil and gas conglomerate owned by Nigerian billionaire Mike Adenuga of defaulting on its debt obligations amounting to millions of dollars.
In separate letters addressed to Ibrahim Gambari, the chief of staff to Nigeria’s president, and Timipre Sylva, the minister of state for petroleum resources, the contractors called for an investigation into what they describe as the “tragic state” of Conoil Producing Limited.
According to the contractors, the board and senior management of Conoil Producing Limited have been involved in various unethical business practices to avoid paying contractors’ fees.
On Friday March 31 2023, during a trip to Zambia, the final stop on a continental tour, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris reaffirmed her appeal for a “quick finalization” of the country’s enormous debt restructure.
The U.S. has been pushing for creditors, including China, to ease the country’s estimated $17.3 billion foreign debt. Zambiadefaulted in 2020 amid the Covid pandemic.
“We will continue to advocate for the speedy completion of Zambia’s debt treatment and restructuring,” Harris said at a press conference after a meeting with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema in Lusaka.
“The international community must help countries like Zambia get back on their feet. So I will reiterate the call that I have made many times to all bilateral creditors to make significant debt reduction.
Ms. Harris’ visit comes a few months after that of U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. The US is seeking to assert its presence on the resource-rich continent in the face of Chinese investment.
The U.S. has accused China, the largest creditor of many African countries, of dragging its feet since Lusaka requested assistance under a G20 mechanism for restructuring the debt of the poorest states.
“Our priority as a country is to rebuild our economy. What is holding us back is debt,” Hichilema said.
Kamala Harris, the first woman and first person of color elected to the U.S. vice presidency, arrived in Lusaka Friday after visiting Tanzania and Ghana.
She had already visited Zambia in her youth to visit her maternal grandfather who worked there. In Lusaka, she stopped briefly at the place where he lived in the 1960s. “My grandfather was one of my favorite people,” the oldest of her grandchildren told reporters.
Investigators from Ukraine are examining the Kyiv residence of a leader of the Orthodox Church who is accused of defending Russia’s armed action against Ukraine.
Metropolitan The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the most significant monastery in Ukraine, is managed by Pavel Lebed. His Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) branch had previously sided with Moscow’s clergy.
He is allegedly accused of promoting religious and national hate, according to Kiev prosecutors.
Kyiv has been trying to evict him and his followers from the monastery.
Mr Pavel has denied the allegations and argues that the Kyiv authorities have no legal grounds for evicting the monks and staff from the monastery.
In a court appearance on Saturday, reported by the daily Ukrainska Pravda, he called it “a political case” and said “I’ve never been on the side of aggression” – though he did not mention Russia.
“I’m against aggression. And now I’m in Ukraine – this is my land,” he said. He described his current status as “house arrest”.
On Friday hundreds of worshippers gathered at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery – famous for its historic caves – in support of the monks there, protesting against the eviction order.
A statement from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on the Telegram messaging service, says Metropolitan Pavel is suspected of “violating citizens’ equality” based on their racial, national and religious ties.
It says he “repeatedly insulted the religious feelings of Ukrainians”, “humiliated” other faith groups and “tried to create hostile attitudes towards them”.”He also made statements that justified or denied the actions of the aggressor state,” the SBU says. It alleges it has evidence from Metropolitan Pavel’s public speeches and intercepted communications.
Image caption,Worshippers supporting the Orthodox monks thronged the Lavra site on Friday
SBU head Vasyl Malyuk said “today the enemy is trying to use the church environment to promote its propaganda and divide Ukrainian society”.
“But we will not give him a single chance!” he stressed.
Last year, the SBU raided the Lavra and other buildings belonging to the UOC, and dozens of clerics have been arrested on accusations of treason and collaboration with Russia. The UOC, however, says there is no evidence to support the charges.
In recent years many worshippers have joined the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, while millions still follow the UOC, which split from Moscow last May after centuries under its control.
The Russian Orthodox Church has allied itself with President Vladimir Putin, echoing Kremlin rhetoric in defending the invasion of Ukraine.
Concern over TikTok seems to be spreading in some circles.
Particularly when it comes to data security, governments in the West are starting to take action, but so far there hasn’t been much official commentary in Africa.
The captivating design of the app has swept the globe, and North America is no exception.
The endless scrolling, the quickfire nuggets of information, the algorithm that seems to know what you want to see better than you do, serve to draw the user in. Before long, seconds turn to minutes, which can then turn to hours.
A TikTok-induced headache might then follow, in which things are only understandable as long as they are presented in meme form.
But resisting this onslaught might be fruitless and we, on the continent, should be paying attention.
The 2022 Reuters Institute Digital News Report showed Africa to be a priority market for TikTok, with ever more young people using it to get the latest news.
The social media app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is now offering support and a platform for creators across Africa who are beginning to find a voice that has been excluded elsewhere.
They are challenging the more mainstream narratives about the continent and presenting the world with a different view.
Image caption,Tanzanian Tiktokers Kili and Neema Paul have become well-known in India
However, concerns have been expressed in many parts of the globe over its security features.
TikTok has recently been in the firing line, not least from US lawmakers who grilled CEO Shou Zi Chew for over four hours in what was described as a “Congress showdown”.
The focus was over suspicions that user data gathered by the app could be accessed by the Chinese government.
Fears over TikTok are not exclusive to the US – several countries are now banning the use of the app together with other social media platforms on government employees’ phones because of insufficient data security measures.
Waihiga Mwaura
There is the feeling that while data security is an issue, TikTok should not be the sole focus of attention”
But there has been silence from African governments. No country on the continent has yet taken measures against TikTok.
Speaking to some experts here in Kenya, there is the feeling that while data security is an issue, TikTok should not be the sole focus of attention.
Kennedy Kachwanya, chair of the Bloggers Association of Kenya (Bake), reminds us of the accusations that UK-based Cambridge Analytica harvested user data in Kenya to help manipulate the outcome of elections in 2013 and 2017.
The company, which has now folded, said in 2018 that it was employed as a marketing agency and was simply using social media to help its client to win.
“The issue of Cambridge Analytica was highly discussed in the US and UK but what they did in Kenya for example, back in the 2013 election was barely mentioned,” Mr Kachwanya says.
“It is my feeling that Kenya and Nigeria were the testing grounds for them before the big use in the US and UK.”
For him allegations of what Cambridge Analytica could do indicated how user information could be used by third parties, either for commercial purposes, interference with the democratic process or to help with state surveillance.
There are also allegations that anti-TikTok headlines reflect the concerns that its rivals are losing market share.
James Wamathai, also from Bake, believes the targeting of Tiktok is fuelled by American hysteria and propaganda.
The digital strategist says that “US companies collect way more data” and argues that they are frustrated as they appear to be “unable to compete with TikTok”.
There is also another concern over the safety of users and the potential for them to be exposed to inappropriate material.
Gift Mirie, a manager at a Nairobi-based digital firm that handles social media influencers, closely followed the session with the TikTok CEO at the US Congress. He was surprised at how the 40-year-old was so forthcoming with information about the inner workings of the platform.
His greatest issue however was that guarantees that Shou Zi Chew made about the safety of American teenagers were not extended elsewhere.
“We’ve seen how African youth quickly jump on global trends – what is the consideration for their safety in this algorithm protection plan?” Mr Mirie asked.
Image caption,TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told US lawmakers about protection for young Americans, but what about youth elsewhere?
This week also saw a Senegalese lobby group, known as Restic, appeal to the regulator there to help control what young people can see.
“Unfortunately, the content on TikTok is very violent and some features in this context are not allowed by our traditions here in Africa,” Resitc’s Moustapha Diakhate told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.
“We definitely want to see how we protect our kids who interact with this social media.”
All those I spoke to felt that data security and online safety should be a top consideration – regardless of where the parent company of the social media app in question is based.
They challenge African governments to demand the same guarantees from technology companies that their counterparts in the West are receiving.
Data that is freely offered up by users can be used for innocent marketing purposes. But in the wrong hands, whether that is an overbearing state or a foreign power, the information could be used for something more nefarious.
Pirates have abandoned a Danish-owned ship that was taken over in the Gulf of Guinea last week, but some crew members were taken with them and others were saved, according to the ship’s owner.
The Liberian-flagged oil and chemicals tanker Monjasa Reformer was boarded on Saturday by five armed people 225km (140 miles) west of the Republic of Congo’s Port Pointe-Noire, its owner, Monjasa, said at the time. Sixteen crew members were on board.
The Reformer subsequently went missing but was later located by the French navy off Sao Tome and Principe, Monjasa said on Friday.
“Our thoughts are with the crew members still missing and their families during this stressful period,” the company said. “Monjasa will continue working closely with the local authorities to support our seafarer’s safe return to their families.”
The rescued crew members are all in good health, and no damage was reported to the ship or its cargo, it said.
The Gulf of Guinea, described by the International Maritime Bureau as one of the world’s most dangerous shipping routes, covers 11,000sq km (4,247sq miles) and stretches from Angola to Senegal.
Since 2021, piracy cases have been on the decline due to cooperation among countries in the region and deployments of foreign naval ships, according to the United Nations Security Council.
Denmark, which has large commercial shipping interests, deployed a frigate to the gulf in 2021 to protect shipping, but the ship was pulled back last year after the outbreak of the Ukraine war.
In November 2021, a Danish naval patrol killed four pirates in an exchange of fire just outside Nigeria’s territorial waters.
The sequence of events that led to a Member of Parliament being brought to the House in an ambulance is not entirely clear.
The facts, however, are that a gory accident happened involving the lawmaker in question, Mohammed Hardi Tufeiru who also doubles as MP for Nanton.
That he was brought to Parliament in an ambulance and he was rushed back to a hopsital to receive emergency care.
Situation one: Accident confirmed
Photos shared on social media platforms late Friday, March 31, 2023; showed a badly mangled saloon car the MP was purportedly riding in at the time of the accident.
The Nanton MP was reportedly on his way to parliament when the incident occured. It is yet to be established whether he was in the company of a driver or he was driving himself.
Situation two: Brought to Parliament in ambulance
Whiles there are no details of how he was fetched with the ambulance and when the decision was taken to take him to Parliament, some news reports have suggested that he was driven from the accident scene to Parliament.
His presence in parliament was to help the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) successfully approve three new taxes.
The three new taxes were: Excise Duty Amendment Bill 2022, the Growth and Sustainability Levy Bill, 2022, and the Income Tax Amendment Bill 2022.
Situation three: Taken back to hospital after tax vote
Starr News senior reporter Francis Abban and a number of Parliamentary correspondents confirmed that the ailing MP was taken straight to the hospital posting a video of the moment the MP was taken back to the ambulance after voting.
In the video sighted by GhanaWeb, four men believed to be colleague MPs are seen around the ambulance as one comes down to join before they head back into the main building.
Abban captioned the video thus: “That’s the video of the ambulance that is sending the Nanton MP Alhaji Tufeiru to the hospital for medical care. Source- @Starr1035Fm’s parliamentary correspondent @IBGlobe.”
That’s the video of the ambulance that is sending the Nanton MP Alhaji Tufeiru to the hospital for medical care. Source- @Starr1035Fm’s parliamentary correspondent @IBGlobe. 2 more bills to decide on by the house. We are in for a long night. pic.twitter.com/QujpQpKh4U— Francis Abban (@francis_abban) March 31, 2023
Bagbin defends mode of voting
Even though he was not physically available in the Chamber at the time of voting, Speaker Alban Bagbin justified the reason for allowing his vote to be counted stating that he only followed procedures.
”Members who are incapacitated shall upon reporting their incapacity to the Speaker through the Clerk shall be recorded. We have some of our members that are incapacitated and what I did was to ask the Whips to go and physically see them to assess their incapacitation and whether they are of sound mind.”
“I did not do anything untoward. I only followed the rules.”
A paralympic gold medalist from South Africa, Oscar Pistorius, was denied parole after asking for an early release from jail ten years after killing his girlfriend in a gunshot.
“We were … advised at this point in time that it has been denied and it will be considered again in one year’s time,” Tania Koen, a lawyer for the victim’s family, said on Friday.
The Department of Correctional Services said Pistorius had not completed the minimum detention period required for parole.
Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp, a model, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013, firing four times through the bathroom door of the house where the duo lived in Pretoria.
Known worldwide as the “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fibre prosthetics, he was jailed in 2016, initially for a six-year term. The sentence was increased to 13 years after prosecutors appealed, arguing that the initial sentence was too lenient.
He had pleaded not guilty and denied killing Steenkamp in a rage, saying he mistook her for a burglar.
Friday’s parole hearing was held at a correctional facility on the outskirts of the capital where the 36-year-old is being held.
Prisoners in South Africa are automatically eligible for parole consideration after serving half of their sentence. Pistorius has served more than half, having started his term in 2014.
Although it will take a lot for a Head of State to resign, the act could also prove a daunting task for the future of any developing nation like Ghana.
Long after Ghana gained independence in 1957, the country was subjected to autocratic rule or quasi-democracy due to the many coup d’états the country witnessed, until the tide turned and we got the longest democratic rule, which began in 1992 under the late former president Jerry John Rawlings and is still going strong.
Despite the tedious responsibilities associated with being president, only one Head of State has been on record to have resigned in the history of Ghana.
While the decision to resign is controversial, there have been arguments about many Ghanaian presidents who may have long gotten away with acts that require their resignations.
But as a parable says, ‘Two wrongs don’t make a right’.
In GhanaWeb’s history class, we take a look at the only Ghanaian Head of State who resigned from the position.
Lieutenant General Joseph A. Ankrah resigned from office on April 2, 1969. Prior to this, he became Head of State in 1966 after Ghana experienced its first coup d’état following the overthrow of the Kwame Nkrumah government, sparking the formation of the National Liberation Council.
Following the coup, General Ankrah became the first Chairman of the National Liberation Council (NLC).
According to eaumf.org, General Ankrah resigned after having admitted that he had received money for political purposes from a private company. While serving as Head of State, his tenure was marred with various bribery scandals.
Notable among the scandals was the admission of taking a bribe from a Nigerian businessman named Arthur Nzeribe.
The allegation, at the time, was that results of an opinion poll conducted by Anthony Nzeribe and contracted by the NLC for that purpose, showed General Ankrah as the most popular person in Ghana from a field of prominent politicians, including General Afrifa and Kofi Abrefa Busia.
Upon the revelation, the Commission of Enquiry was formed and determined that General Ankrah had received C6,000.00 from Nzeribe, which might have influenced the outcome of the opinion polls.
Although, there were suspicions that other political factors were at play beyond the bribery scandal, General Ankrah was forced to resign as Head of State on April 2, 1969.
About General Ankrah
Joseph A. Ankrah was born on August 18, 1915, in Accra to Samuel Paul Cofie Ankrah, an overseer for the Christian Missionary Society and Beatrice Abashie Quaynor, who was a trader.
Ankrah began his schooling in 1921 at the Wesleyan Methodist School in Accra, where his nickname was ‘Ankrah Patapaa’ for his “forcefulness in arguments and always playing leadership role among his mates.”
In 1932, he entered Accra Academy where he established himself as a good football player. He obtained the Senior Cambridge School Certificate in 1937.
Years after, he joined the Ghana Civil Service and later joined the Ghana Army.
The first of a four-part investigative series on the smuggling of gold in Africa released by Al Jazeera last week, Alistair Mathias, illegally exports gold worth $40 million from Ghana each month
The episode reveals the perpetrators of the crime in numerous African countries, including one who admitted to transporting gold worth $480 million out of Ghana every year. Alistair Mathias is the man’s name.
According to reports, Alistair Mathias, a Canadian citizen located in Dubai, aids in money laundering around the globe and uses a network of businesses and refineries to make sure his operation is successful. Russians and African leaders are among his clients.
He is said to be the partner of Ewan Macmillan, another alleged mafia exposed in the series.
During his meeting with Al Jazeera’s undercover reporters, Mathias said aside Ghana, he moves gold worth between $70million and $80million from Zimbabwe monthly. South Africa was also on his list.
According to Al Jazeera, “When asked for a formal comment about the findings of Al Jazeera’s investigation, Mathias denied that he designed mechanisms to launder money and said that he had not laundered money or traded illegal gold for Russian clients or anyone else. He told us he had never had any working relationship with Macmillan.”
Alistair Mathias accused of duping Ghanaian businessman
This isn’t the first time Alistair Marthias’ name is being tagged with crime, in 2014, he was accused swindling a Ghanaian businessman of over $4million in a gold trade.
According to the businessman, Henry Osei, he opened a branch of his company in Dubai and gave Mathias the role of clearing and forwarding gold shipments to the refinery in Dubai as well as receiving proceeds for transfer to the Ghanaian company back home in Accra, since the latter was a resident of UAE.
He said things run smoothly at the beginning of the partnership but in December 2013 and March 2014, Mathias failed to transfer proceeds of $4million to Ghana though checks had revealed the refinery in Dubai had paid him for the sale of gold.
“After all my efforts to retrieve my money back proved futile, it left me no choice than to file a criminal case against him for his arrest. Mr Matthias was subsequently arrested when he came to Ghana and was granted bail in less than an hour at the Police Headquarters. As I speak the man has travelled back to Dubai,” Mr Osei noted in a Dubai court.
Though Alistair pleaded not guilty to the charge of misappropriating the said amount, the court judged in favour of the complainant.
Alistair’s account of partnership
Alistair Mathias said he came to Ghana in 2009/10 in search for investment opportunities and settled on mining.
He acquired a concession in the Eastern Region after registering his company, M.A. Resources Ltd. in 2010 and in 2011, he met Henry Osei and his business partner.
They were both directors and shareholders of Guldrest Resources Company Limited, a local company involved in gold business with a vast network across the country.
According to Alistair, he started financing his new business partners to buy gold for his company in UAE, Mathias Holding and things went well until Guldrest Resources lost huge amounts of money in 2012/13 due to a sharp decline in gold prices.
To help Henry Osei out of his dilemma, Alistair said he formed a company with the Ghanaian in UAE, Guldrest Resources FZC.
He was therefore surprised to find out Mr Osei lodged a complaint with Ghana’s Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police, accusing him of defrauding him (Osei) to the tune of four million dollars.
Though he was in Dubai at the time the complaint was filed, Alistair said he “immediately flew to Ghana to respond to the rather baseless claims made against me by a man whose company was owing me large amounts of money.”
While this was happening, Henry Osei also went to UAE to make a similar complaint to the police.
“According to court documents, Henry’s claims to the police were that as manager of Guldrest Resources FZC, Alistair could not account for $4,054,024.10 out of a total transaction volume of $83,927,240.10 by way of…failing to send the value of the gold sent thereto…’,” a report on myjoyonline.com stated.
In his absence, the Sharjah Public Prosecution went to court, after preparing a docket, seeking to try Alistair in absentia.
After failed attempts to prevent him from flying outside Ghana, Alistair said he arrived in Dubai a few days before judgment was going to be passed on him, without knowing that was even happening.
According to myjoyonline.com, “Sharjah Court of Misdemeanour reviewed the case, in the presence of the appellant (Alistair) along with his [legal] representative, as well as the [legal] representative of the claimant (Henry) and upon asking about the charge levelled against him, he denied the accusation.”
The report further mentioned that “according to the court, Henry submitted an expert accounts report prepared by an “expert consultant.” The lower court itself appointed an accounting expert who concluded Alistair owed $3,638,504.24.
“The Court of Appeal further stated that Alistair, raised “objections on the appointed expert report before the lower court because the expert relied on documents that were not translated and the expert did not seek the support of an expert in minerals specialized in gold.”
Alistair who wasn’t satisfied with the lower court’s ruling filed an appeal at the UAE Court of Appeal and there, the case against him was dismissed.
According to the court enough evidence had been provided to prove that Alistair Mathias was totally innocent of the charges brought against him by the country’s public prosecutors.
The court also ruled that Henry Osei rather owed Alistair more than USD $9.2 million.
“The three-member panel held that Mr Henry Osei’s complaint which formed the basis for the charges against Mr Mathias was founded on contradictory, unproven and unsubstantiated claims.
“The Sharjah Second Penal Court of Appeal consequently ruled that “the misappropriation crime levelled against [Alistair] [are] totally void and there is no proof or even indication that [he] committed such a crime…”
“The court found, that contrary to claims by the Ghanaian, Henry Osei, that his estranged business partner owed him $4 million, Mr Osei’s Guldrest Resources Ghana Company Ltd., rather owes Mr Mathias about $9.2 million,” myjoyonline.com reported.
A lecturer from the University of Ghana’s Political Science Department, Dr. Alidu Seidu has pushed for electronic voting to be used as part of legislative voting system improvements.
According to him, doing so will serve the dual purposes of aiding in the monitoring of MPs’ voting patterns on specific matters, such patterns may later be examined for various motives.
Dr. Seidu advanced further that the vote in the case of a secret ballot should be stored electronically in a remote server but that same should be declassified at a later date.
“Moving forward there is the need to have an electronic voting system, so that when the MPs are going to vote, they’ll call their names and they’ll vote, which is stored remotely and not displayed at that material moment until when the need arises for people to look at it, then it is produced. That’d be good.
“In other jurisdictions, we can tell the track record of MPs, including Congressmen and how they vote and on what issues. And so, it becomes even a campaign message for them,” he explained on the PM Express programme on Joy News (March 27).
He stressed that for the MPs, such a record becomes a basis on which they can make a case to their constituents during elections, because they can say they are a champion on so and so issue.
Other guests on the show were lawmakers Kofi Adams (NDC, Buem) and Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed (NDC, Tamale Central).
Adams in addressing the issue of vote reforms said: “Even if (the vote is) not public, we should put a system in place so that how each member votes on any issue would be recorded. So that when there is a need to enquire into it, we can enquire into it.”
Murtala also agreed with the suggestion and asserted that doing so with the view to later declassifying will mean that MPs who want to vote against their party whip will reconsider their actions.
The NDC has recently been hit by a vote rebellion in which its MPs voted to approve eight nominees of president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo against express orders of the party and a three-line whip by their leadership.
The party is currently on a hunt for MPs who defied the party’s orders with the view to punishing them.
The United States has started using a new model for its military outposts abroad, according to Kwesi Pratt Jr., managing editor of the Insight newspaper.
Pratt claims that the military base’s new structure differs from the previous one, which saw the US build massive complexes in allies.
The host of Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, Dr. Randy Abbey, questioned Pratt’s assertion that the US has created a military base in Ghana, forcing him to explain the nature of US military facilities.
Kwesi Pratt elucidated that the lily-pad style of bases has become the preference for the US as it is more efficient and cost-effective.
Below is the conversation on GMG
You remember Nkrumah’s statement that Africa should be a land without bombs but we’ve messed it up completely. Now we have a US military base on your soil, where is your Non-Alliance?
Randy Abbey: Kwesi, do we really have a military base in Ghana?
Pratt: You don’t know, you didn’t read the agreement in Parliament
Randy: You mean that chochopua (insignificant) thing?
Pratt: It is not chochopua at all.
Randy: When I see US military bases, I see what I see
Pratt: You are so conservative and out of date that is why you talk like that. The new concept of military bases is called the lily pad. The lily pad is not a huge infrastructure with buildings. What we have here is on model of the lily pad. The lily pads are perhaps more effective.
What are lily pads
The lily pads according to a Huffington Post story in 2012 are “small, secretive, inaccessible facilities with limited numbers of troops, spartan amenities, and prepositioned weaponry and supplies.”
Context
Kwesi Pratt was lamenting government seeming flirtations with the United States at a time when it is discussing with China over debt cancelation.
Pratt was concerned that the posture of government with respect to its relationship with US could scupper any chance of China cancelling its death with the country.
He cited the visit of the Vice President of the US, Kamala Harris as another evidence of Ghana’s preference for the US over China.
The young lady who was denied a call to the bar in November 2022 on the basis of ethical violations, Elorm Ababio, also known online as Ama Governor, has opened up about the incident.
In a YouTube video titled “restrictions” posted on her official channel, March 31, 2023; Ama Governor admitted how hard it was and has been dealing with her ordeal.
“I am not able to forget that it happened,” she said at a point in the 21 minute video.
She disclosed going through trauma which made the experience even harder to forget or write off.
“The experience, the trauma doesn’t help you to forget that it ever happened so it’s hard for me to pretend that it didn’t happen especially when it is still happening,” she said.
The video starts with her mopping off a tattoo on her arm, wiping off her dark lipstick, taking off her nose ring and anklets and dumping them into a bin.
In the video, she takes viewers through a day whiles narrating a series of events that have happened since she was denied the call to the bar.
She admitted earlier on that her usual self will be missing from the video especially because she had to hevily edit portions on the advice of some lawyers who reviewed the content.
In explaining the reason, she cited restrictions, stressing that some of the content she would ordinarily had put out could be misconstrued within the context of her personality and ambitions.
Pro-Ama Governor petition
Some Ghanaians on social media launched an online petition targeted at the General Legal Council (GLC).
The move is in protest of the suspension of the call to the Ghana Bar of Ama Governor.
The lawyer-in-waiting, who is also a YouTuber, was denied the Car call despite her successful completion of the professional law program, that is passing her exams and scaling the interview session as well.
The petition dubbed ‘Justice for Ama Governor’ has been published to gather signatures.
Ama Governor reportedly received a letter dated November 3, from the Secretary to the General Legal Council, Justice Cynthia Pamela A. Addo JA, informing her of the suspension because a complaint filed by a “concerned citizen”.
The GLC indicated that the complaint by this “concerned citizen” alleged that Ama Governor is seen in widely circulated videos engaging in what it describes as “conduct unbecoming of an applicant to be called to the Bar”.
The Complainant, the GLC Secretary indicated, also submitted a flash drive [pen drive] which contains selected video files and hyperlinks of Ama Governor to relevant website publications.
Ama Governor’s conduct is said to violate Regulation 21 (c) of the Legal Profession (Professional and Post-call Law Course) Regulations, 2018 L.I. 2355.
The said Regulation states: “A student of the school qualifies to be called to the Bar, if that student has […] (c) satisfied the Council that the student is of good character.”
On Friday, protesters marched through Cape Town, South Africa, to voice their opposition to the harsh anti-gay law that took effect in Uganda last week.
The proposed law, known as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023, is ready to be sent to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who is facing calls from the United Nations and the United States to reject it.
“Colonisation was enough, apartheid was enough, we can’t deal with this. Human beings need to be free from brainwashing strategies. They need to be free from unjust laws. So we are saying asSouth Africans stop the anti-homosexual bill”, said Author and activist, Siza Nobuhle, who participated in the march.
Human rights activist from ONG Safe Places International, Nyasha Masi Zhakata, added:
“What is happening right now in Uganda is whereby we have our people imprisoned in their own houses because of their sexuality. It angers me, it gets me so angry, it gets me so frustrated”, she shouted.
According to activists, if president Museveni gives his assent, anyone who engages in same-sex activity could face life imprisonment while repeat offenders could be sentenced to death.
Demonstrators marched in South Africa’s Cape Town this Friday against Uganda’s draconian anti-gay law put in place last week.
The proposed law, known as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023, is ready to be sent to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who is facing calls from the United Nations and the United States to reject it.
“Colonisation was enough, apartheid was enough, we can’t deal with this. Human beings need to be free from brainwashing strategies. They need to be free from unjust laws. So we are saying as South Africans stop the anti-homosexual bill”, said Author and activist, Siza Nobuhle, who participated in the march.
Human rights activist from ONG Safe Places International, Nyasha Masi Zhakata, added:
“What is happening right now in Uganda is whereby we have our people imprisoned in their own houses because of their sexuality. It angers me, it gets me so angry, it gets me so frustrated”, she shouted.
According to activists, if president Museveni gives his assent, anyone who engages in same-sex activity could face life imprisonment while repeat offenders could be sentenced to death.
Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia are countries in the Horn of Africa and will require more than $2.68 billion to fulfill crucial sectoral requirements over the next four months as a result of the severe drought in the area.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), a regional organization, made an urgent request for humanitarian assistance on Wednesday to provide individuals suffering from drought with basic necessities like water, food, and pasture.
Dr. Workeneh Gebeyehu, the executive secretary of Igad, claimed that the region’s capacity to feed its people adequately has been severely hampered by the protracted drought, which has been characterized by five consecutive seasons of below-average rainfall.
“The consequences of the drought are terrible in some pastoral and agropastoral areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, and has resulted to severe water and pasture shortages, one million displaced people, over 10 million livestock and wildlife deaths, reduced crop and livestock production, all of which are increasing food insecurity,” he said.
Shorter than normal season
Igad says that despite heavy rainfall recently recorded, there are signs the season might be shorter than normal, bringing lingering effects in the three states.
“Forty-seven million of our brothers and sisters are highly food insecure and some risk dying of starvation. Seventy percent of these 47 million people live in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. This is why we solemnly call on the international community to help us prevent a major humanitarian disaster by committing requisite resources to save lives and livelihoods in the short-term, and continue investing in resilience building in the medium and long-term,” said Dr. Gebeyehu.
Somalia is the most affected and needs $1.6 billion to provide food and non-food items to the communities affected by drought and internally displaced people in the next four months whereas Kenya requires $378 million to provide food, water and vaccination to the affected counties until October 2023.
Timely and effective responses
Igad, in its report this week, indicates Ethiopia needs $710 million to provide support to key sectoral needs until August this year.
The regional body says member states are also working on strengthening disaster risk governance capacity to ensure timely and effective responses to drought and other disasters in the region.
“Our recovery will require resources and time, and we must work to prevent future disasters from having such severe impacts. Igad has outlined mid to long-term priorities to make the region more resilient and sustainable,” said the Igad boss.
Leading opposition leader Ousmane Sonko has received a two-month suspended prison term for libel from a Senegalese court, according to his attorneys.
He was found guilty on Thursday of defaming Tourism Minister Mame Mbaye Niang, whom he accused of theft, by the court in the nation’s capital, Dakar.
Sonko will not be barred from standing in the presidential elections held in 2019 as a result of the sentencing, in what appears to be an effort by the authorities to appease his fans who have frequently turned to the streets to protest what they believe to be a politically driven campaign.
Still, a spokesperson for Sonko’s party expressed disappointment with the outcome of the trial, Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque reported from Dakar.
“He [Sonko] is disappointed that he is convicted for what he thinks is just him telling the truth [about the tourism minister],” said Haque.
However, a spokesperson for the governing party termed the verdict a “victory for democracy, rule of law, and the justice system”, added Haque.
“The opposition has always said the justice system serves the purpose of eliminating the opposition [leaders] that could be rivals to the president, but the ruling party says the verdict shows that democracy is thriving in Senegal,” Haque said.
A former tax inspector who transitioned to politics and became the leader of the Pastef opposition party, Sonko finished third in the 2019 presidential election. His popularity has since risen and he is considered today as incumbent President Macky Sall’s foremost political opponent.
Sonko faced libel charges brought against him by Mbaye Niang after accusing him of stealing 29 billion CFA francs ($47m) from a government agency. He denied wrongdoing and previously said the charges against him were a tactic to eliminate him from the presidential race.
The 48-year-old also faces separate charges of raping a beauty salon employee and making death threats to her in 2021. He has also denied wrongdoing in the sexual abuse case.
The cases have prompted violent protests across the country. Anger has also risen around fears Sall will use a recent change to the constitution to reset his mandate, which ends in 2024, allowing him to run for a third term.
Sall has shirked all questions about this, neither confirming nor denying the claim.
Police were deployed in large numbers in Dakar on Thursday, a day after security forces fired tear gas during clashes with students trying to hold a banned demonstration.
Shortly after the verdict was announced, said Dakar was no longer a “tense city” and that people were coming back to the street despite a heavy police presence.
General Muhoozi Kainerugaba of the Ugandan Army has declared that uganda will stand by Russian President Vladimir Putin if he is attacked.
Muhoozi, president Yoweri Museveni’s son, declared that Uganda would send troops to Moscow if it became essential to assist Putin in battling what he called “imperialists.”
“Call me a ‘Putinist’ if you will, but we, Uganda shall send soldiers to defend Moscow if it’s ever threatened by the Imperialists!” he tweeted on March 30, 2023.
Believed to be eyeing the presidency when next elections are held, Muhoozi, a controversial figure leading a group called ‘Muhoozi Movement’ has serially used Twitter to make controversial takes bordering on diplomacy, politics and personal life.
He recently criticised the decision by some Ugandan journalists to visit Kiev to report on the Russia-Ukraine war.
“In Africa, we only believe in President Putin when it comes to Eastern Europe. The West is wasting its time with its useless pro-Ukraine propaganda. Russia, China, Africa, India, South America shall win in Ukraine. 75% of humanity shall win against 15%,” another of his pro-Russia tweets read.
Former President John Dramani Mahama’s spokesperson, Kwasi Kwarteng, has urged him to apologize to Ghanaian students for comparing the food they eat in schools to that of dogs.
As part of the rollout of the government’s flagship program, Free Senior High School, Mr. Mahama raised concern over the subpar quality of the food being served in the various Senior High Schools (SHSs) during his campaign tour in the Central Region (Free SHS).
John Dramani Mahama claims that the pupils are sickened and uncomfortable by the subpar food that is supplied to them.
“Today, if you go to see the kind of food the children are eating in the schools…you shudder to serve such food to your dogs at home,” he told delegates and party members in the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa Constituency.
Reacting to Mr Mahama’s comment, Mr Kwarteng said it is unpresidential for the former President to speak that way.
In a Facebook post, Mr Kwarteng noted “Former President John Dramani Mahama is known for his unpresidential remarks but little did we know he could be such loose, vulgar and low. How do you equate food for human beings to that of dogs? Jesus Christ!
“Mr Mahama is not only wrong in demeaning our collective efforts in providing quality education for Ghanaian students but he’s also wrong for reducing the school children to dogs. That’s insulting.
“Comments like this is not acceptable. Is backward, retrogressive, negative and unpresidential.
“Somebody whose leadership witnessed the worst educational outcomes ever shouldn’t be making such comments. He should apologize to Ghanaian Children!”
The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) deputy communications director George Krobea Asante, has indicated that President Nana Akufo-Addo, fiercely defends Ghanaian cultural values and will not do anything within his power to destroy such rich values as the nation proceeds to approve the anti-LGBTQ Bill.
According to him, Ghanaians must rally support behind the President and parliamentarians as they lead the passage of this bill.
President Akufo-Addo has come under some public flak after what people say was his attempt to distance his government from the anti-LGBTQ Bill during a media engagement after hosting the United States of America Vice President, Kamala Harris at the Jubilee House in Accra on Monday.
But speaking on Original TV, the outspoken NPP Communicator, George Krobea Asante reiterated the earlier position of the President that under his watch as President, Ghana is never going to approve or allow such devilish act of LBTQI+.
“This has been the clear and emphatic position of the President and same has been expressed by him on many occasions and on different platforms. So what again do the NDC communicators seek to hear from the President before they will be convinced that Nana Addo detests such acts of LGBTQI+? This is a clear case of mischief and dishonesty on the part of the NDC.
“Again, let me ask this simple question, which of the things the President said in his reaction to a question by the New York Times journalist regarding the pending bill in parliament can be said to be untrue? Or the NDC expected the President to subvert or subdue the legislative powers of parliament? Fellow Ghanaians, let’s not fall for the mischief and the propaganda of the NDC.”
George Krobea Asante noted that the President mentioned the sensitivity of the human rights issues as well as the mood and the sentiments of the Ghanaian people as key considerations of parliament before the passage of the bill.
“And I vehemently believe that parliament after analyzing the bill will pass it and the President will also assent to its execution. LGBTQI+ is a threat to our existence and cultural values as people and cannot have any space in our society,” he added.
Mr Krobea Asante called on Ghanaians to continue to have confidence in the President and also rally support behind him to turn around Ghana’s economic fortunes by overcoming the devastating impact of the Covid 19 and the Russia – Ukraine war.
National Democratic Congress‘ deputy regional secretary for Ashanti, Baah Acheamfour, has criticized the police’s decision to invite him and five other people because they were wearing camouflage clothing.
Nobody, he asserts, may prevent them from wearing it until a competent court orders them not to.
Baah Acheamfour clarified that the reproductions had nothing to do with acting like members of the military; instead, they were made of common fabric and sewn by tailors. He consequently referred to their invitation as intimidation.
“It is a normal camouflage material we were wearing and not a military uniform.
“I had no idea that the others were going to put on their camouflage materials and what we did has nothing to do with security because there were police officers on the ground that provided security when JM came.
“What we wore was a completely different material from what the Ghana military wear. No one can tell us to stop wearing the attire unless we are told not to wear it by a competent court,” citinewsroom.com quoted Baah Acheamfour
Six executives including, Captain (Rtd) John Kwame Jabari, first Vice Chairman of the party in the region; Baah Acheamfour, Deputy Secretary of the party in the region; Seth Atanga, Deputy Youth Organizer, and Marvin Philip Frazer Norman were invited by the Ashanti Regional Police Command to help probe the authenticity of the attires wore at the tour.
Ghana’s first and Former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has claimed that investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas is afraid of his own reputation as an anti-corruption businessman rather than a sincere anti-corruption activist.
Mr. Amidu claimed that Anas may have hurt himself by using a power of attorney to file the lawsuit rather than doing so himself out of fear of having his true identity revealed in an article on Justice Eric Baah’s High Court’s decision to dismiss a GHS25 million defamation suit filed by the investigative journalist against Assin Central MP Kennedy Agyapong.
“Anas A. Anas knowingly and voluntarily caused his action to be commenced by one Listowell Bukarson on behalf of Anas A. Anas as the plaintiff. This was by virtue of a power of attorney authorizing him to bring the action in the name of the plaintiff, Anas A. Anas on 18 June 2018 for twenty-five million Ghana cedis (GHS25million) damages. The writ of summons was amended on 20 November 2018 after the defendant had filed his statement of defence on 13 November 2018. The Plaintiff then replied on 21 January 2019 to close the pleadings. The filing of the action through an attorney as an agent of a principal is not controversial and is enabled by law”, Mr Amidu said in a long article.
He noted: “Any act in any court required or authorised by the law to be made or done by a party in such court may be done by an authorised agent. The question is whether the attorney can testify on behalf of the plaintiff on matters which are not within his personal knowledge. Did the attorney see or witness the transactions alleged? As far as the requirement that he should testify about what he actually did see or heard is concerned, the attorney could not testify about what the plaintiff himself witnessed or heard”.
Mr Amidu indicated: “The rule against admissibility of hearsay evidence is statutory. Anas A. Anas, the plaintiff, put himself in a situation of being incapable of giving relevant and primary evidence in person and be cross-examined because he lives in the fear of his own shadow as an anti-corruption entrepreneur and not as a genuine anti-corruption crusader”.
To him, “Anas A. Anas, thus, lost the only opportunity to publicly tell the court his version of the facts within his personal knowledge and to be cross-examined to establish his credibility”.
He believes “genuine anti-corruption crusaders do not hide their faces behind masks”.
Read Mr Amidu’s full article below:
The High Court (General Jurisdiction 2) Accra, on 15 March 2023 after hearing the defamation action brought by Anas A. Anas against Kennedy Agyepong and considering the evidence adduced at the trial concluded that:
“I state in conclusion, that whereas all the statements founded on exhibits KOA1, KOA2, KOA3 and KOA4 were truthful and factual, thereby sustaining defendant’s defence of justification and fair comment, the statements in plaintiff’s exhibit C; though capable of defamatory meanings, were not proven to have actually defamed the plaintiff. I found the claims of plaintiff merit-less. It is hereby dismissed.”
ANAS A. ANAS AS THE PLAINTIFF
Anas A. Anas the Plaintiff dabbles both as a lawyer and an “internationally acclaimed investigative journalist”. Anas A. Anas knowingly and voluntarily caused his action to be commenced by one Listowell Bukarson on behalf of Anas A. Anas as the plaintiff. This was by virtue of a power of attorney authorizing him to bring the action in the name of the plaintiff, Anas A. Anas on 18 June 2018 for twenty-five million Ghana cedis (GHS25million) damages. The writ of summons was amended on 20 November 2018 after the defendant had filed his statement of defence on 13 November 2018. The Plaintiff then replied on 21 January 2019 to close the pleadings. The filing of the action through an attorney as an agent of a principal is not controversial and is enabled by law.
Any act in any court required or authorized by the law to be made or done by a party in such court may be done by an authorized agent. The question is whether the attorney can testify on behalf of the plaintiff on matters which are not within his personal knowledge. Did the attorney see or witness the transactions alleged? As far as the requirement that he should testify about what he actually did see or heard is concerned, the attorney could not testify about what the plaintiff himself witnessed or heard.
The rule against admissibility of hearsay evidence is statutory. Anas A. Anas, the plaintiff put himself in a situation of being incapable of giving relevant and primary evidence in person and be cross-examined because he lives in the fear of his own shadow as an anti-corruption entrepreneur and not as a genuine anti-corruption crusader. Anas A. Anas thus lost the only opportunity to publicly tell the court his version of the facts within his personal knowledge and to be cross-examined to establish his credibility. Genuine anti-corruption crusaders do not hide their faces behind masks.
READING AND EVALUATING THE JUDGMENT
I have painstakingly read and re-read the 64-page judgment of the trial High Court in ANAS v AGYEPONG using all the knowledge, experience, and arsenals in the legal armory I have acquired over the past upwards of four and half decades (45 years) when I held myself out as a private legal practitioner, a public officer serving in various capacities, including Deputy Attorney General, Minister of the Interior, and Attorney General, amongst others. I declined for personal reasons my proposed elevation as a justice to the Supreme Court in 1999. I am now retired and hold no licence to practice law.
But I say that while one may disagree with the judgment or aspects of the judgment of the learned trial judge in the case, no rational person learned in the law can fault the trial judge for the transparent and accountable manner he went about stating the facts, the issues, the burden of proof and other methodological procedure that enabled him to arrive at his evaluation of the evidence and the conclusions upon his appreciation and understanding of the evidence that unfolded before him at the trial. I make these statements based solely upon the content of the judgment which I downloaded from open source when the media published it. I read the judgment without any previous bank of knowledge about Mr. Justice Eric Baah, JA, sitting as an additional High Court Judge. I have never known or remember ever meeting him, and to the best of my recollection it was the first time I was hearing about him or reading a judgment authored by him. In my candid view after reading the judgment over and over again, I was left in no doubt that the learned trial judge had performed his judicial duty as a trial judge would do based on his appreciation of the evidence before him and the law as he elucidated and understood it. The trial judge exhibited a consciousness of the fact that generally in a civil trial, the burden of proof is on the preponderance of probabilities.
The judge underscored the evidential requirement that where, however, a criminal act is the issue in a civil trial, the burden of persuasion requires proof beyond reasonable doubt, though the sufficiency of the evidence required to attain that standard would depend, to a large extent, on the gravity of that particular offence. The trial judge also exhibited a consciousness of the fact that he was not sitting as a criminal trial court trying crimes but as a civil court trying a case of defamation which had in issue allegations of criminal act(s). The trial judge through the thoroughness of his analysis and legal reasoning demonstrated in his judgment that he was not convicting any of the parties to the action of any criminal offence or having the power to sentence any of them.
The judge reminded himself of his duty to evaluate the evidence, the facts, the law and make findings on the balance of probabilities whether the plaintiff had made out a case of defamation or had failed to do so as a result of the defence put forward by the defendant. In performing his duty as a trial civil court for the tortious offence of defamation he made findings that there was on the balance of probabilities forgery, blackmailing, bribery and corruption, an alleged murder, etcetera, justifiably made by the defendant against the plaintiff. But these findings did not constitute criminal convictions for which the losing party may be sentenced to jail. A trial court or appellate court commits no offence in making such findings and giving judgment based upon those findings in civil trials and civil appeals.
The rules of evidence make it clear in Ghana that in civil trials the availability of a judgment convicting a person for a crime at a criminal trial does not even relieve the civil trial judge from satisfying himself on the evidential burden in the civil trial where a criminal act is in issue. Section 127(1) of Ghana’s Evidence Decree, 1975 (Act 323) and the accompanying Commentary throws light on this matter.
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT AND COHORT SCANDALIZATION OF THE COURT
After reading the judgement of the trial court several times, I decided to research how the judgment was perceived in the politicized environment of Ghana of today where even truth is turned on its head by paid political communicators, partisan political elites, and politicians seeking raw political power with no iota of the basic democratic morality or values premised on the interest of the ordinary citizen.
Anas A. Anas’s Action and Reaction to Judgment
Anas A. Anas was not compelled by the judiciary to bring an action for defamation before any level of the court system against Kennedy Agyepong. He consciously and voluntarily chose to do so in the expectation that he may prevail at the trial. Any party losing in the trial court has a right of appeal if he formed the view that there were appealable grounds against the decision of the trial court. The right of appeal is exercisable by both parties up to the Supreme Court provided they guide against abusing the process of the court with spurious actions and appeals. But a losing party or his cohorts who impute partiality or impropriety to the judge or court commit the offence of scandalizing the trial judge, the court, and the administration of justice as an institution and are in contempt of Court whether or not the losing party subsequently files an appeal against the judgment.
The decision of Supreme Court in the case of REPUBLIC v MENSA-BONSU & OTHERS, EX PARTE ATTORNEY-GENERAL [1995- 96] 1 GLR 377 governs the situation.
Anas A. Anas, a lawyer, and the founding partner in Cromwell Gray LLP with William Agyebeng, now the Special Prosecutor, and his cohorts appeared to assume that when a trial goes against one’s expectations, the trial judge must be vilified and attacked as an excuse for filing an appeal.
The plaintiff was reported to have said, amongst other things, about the judgment that went against him that:
“My team of lawyers and I have carefully studied the judgement delivered by the court and we are unanimous that the judge made an overreach and descended into the arena and made a criminal pronouncement about me as if I was standing a criminal trial.”
The civil action for defamation which Anas A. Anas voluntarily brought before the trial court involved criminal acts which were the issue in a civil trial and the trial judge was bound to make determinations on them in the civil trial. How could the trial judge do that without using the rules of evidence on the burden of proof which any trial court is bound to consider in making its findings on the evidence?
The impression that by performing his judicial functions in exercise of the judicial power guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution the trial judge had descended into the arena of conflict is an attack on the independence and impartiality of the judge and constitutes a scurrilous abuse of the court.
One who has confidence in his cause will quietly go on appeal without making any political fussy to save face.
Reaction from the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) & The Fourth Estate
On the same day, another investigative journalist who has received the Anas Aremeyaw Anas investigative journalist award from the Press Foundation and is associated or works under a project of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), heaped scandalous abuse on the trial judge, the court, and the judiciary as an institution. He was quoted to have said, inter alia, that:
“The judge said what Anas does is “investigative terrorism” and not investigative journalism. Having gone through the judgment, however, one won’t be an inch away from the truth to conclude that what happened is judicial terrorism.” The Executive Director of the MFWA in an interview on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, 18 March 2021 (who works with the journalist who scandalized the trial judge, court and the judiciary as engaged in “judicial terrorism”) was reported to have used words disparaging and constituting scurrilous abuse of the court and the judiciary as an institution. He was quoted on open source as saying that: ‘the Judges’ decision “went beyond probing whether what Kennedy Agyapong said was true, or not true, justifiable, fair and whatever, to actually himself defaming the character of Anas.”’
It is an abuse of the independence guaranteed the media under the 1992 Constitution to accuse a judge sitting as a judge in exercise of his judicial functions and powers of defaming the character of a plaintiff who voluntarily submitted himself to the jurisdiction of the court and gave evidence to the court through an agent-attorney.
The imputation of partiality and impropriety to the court, the administration of justice, and the trial judge’s character constitutes contempt of scandalizing the judge and the administration of justice. As Mrs. Justice A. Dordzie, J (as she then was) decided in the REPUBLIC v GENERAL PORTFOLIO & 3 OTHERS, Suit No. MISC. 932/96, High Court, Accra, 9 August 1996 (Unreported), the slightest suggestion of bias will be contempt and thus the defence of fair comment is not recognized in contempt scandalizing the court. It is the last thing one would have expected from the MFWA.
CDD-Ghana’s Endorsement of Subterfuge and other pending matters
On the same JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, 18 March 2023, Dr. Pumpuni Asante of CDDGhana was reportedly quoted to have said that there are many cases that demand that the investigators resort to deception in order to bring the issue to the attention of the public for thorough investigations to be conducted in order to punish the perpetrators.
Dr Asante is reported to have justified the unethical use of subterfuge by the executive branch, and private and unlicensed covert investigators in the following words:
“… there are many issues around corruption that you have to use subterfuge to get to the matter. … And often when it happens, it will lead to an investigation—a substantive investigation—like in the FIFA case, it led to a substantive investigation and then it helps society to address these problems in society,”
Dr. Pumpuni Asante’s disdain for investigatory and prosecutorial ethics which is the foundation of constitutionalism, democracy and the rule of law that upholds the dignity of the citizen from covert state and private unlicensed investigatory overreach for the preservation of the right to be presumed innocent and the right against self-incrimination only confirms my earlier conclusions about what I referred to in my article, “The Fight Against Corruption Requires A High Degree of Crusading Integrity And Not Entrepreneurship” of 16 September 2022 on the supposed doyen of the NGO’s, CDD-Ghana.
CDD-Ghana is the supposed doyen of the entrepreneurial NGOs in Ghana because as reported in a Modern Ghana article, “Corruption Watch Ghana is an initiative by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and a coalition of anti-corruption civil society organizations including, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Ghana Anti- Corruption Coalition (GACC), and Africa Center for International Law and Accountability (ACILA)…” I came to the considered conclusion in my article of 16 September 2022 on the high degree of crusading integrity required to fight corruption and not entrepreneurship that:
“The same influence peddling or trading of influence can be seen on the website of the OSP where two of the leading foreign influenced NGOs have become integral partners of an independent OSP: Afrobarometer-Center for Democracy and Development (CDD), and Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) – without the slightest shame of any conflict of interest in rigging the elections to Chairpersonship of the governing council of the OSP and violating Section 22 of Act 959 which forbids the OSP from accepting any funds directly or indirectly from anybody except from or through the Ministry of Finance.
This partnership clearly negates the independence of the OSP and now enhances the ability of the NGOs to use influence peddling or trading of influence to source funds, grants and donations from foreign sources first to meet their administrative expenses and salaries, and secondly to interfere in the independent operations of the OSP.”
It is Dr. Pumpuni Asante and CDD-Ghana’s unethical approach to hallowed law enforcement and prosecutorial rules and conventions that has led him to trivialize a considered judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction in Ghana by justifying subterfuge in investigations which the trial court found as being inconsistent with the rule of law and justice in the defamation claim by the plaintiff. I am not surprised by the attitude of CDD-Ghana and its Corruption Watch Ghana initiative because one of their close associates was brave enough to confess to the Deputy Special Prosecutor and I when I was the Special Prosecutor that they had funded a journalist to undertake covert investigation of a public official.
The associate told us that, thereafter the associate negotiated with the Minister for National Security to persuade the President to refer the resultant covert investigation to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) for further investigation and prosecution. When the Government had done the associate’s bidding, the anti-corruption coalition petitioned the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice as well. The CDDGhana had gotten the head of its close associate unto the OSP without ever stopping to think of how unethical it was to involve the OSP as an independent anti-corruption agency in a covert investigation funded by one of its minions on the OSP governing board.
The conflict of interest involved in the whole funded “subterfuge” operation by the CDDGhana’s associate tainted the independent investigatory and prosecutorial discretion of the OSP. I found it unconstitutional and unethical as a former Deputy Attorney General and Attorney General to have exercised any prosecutorial discretion in the referral by the Presidency obtained through blackmail before I resigned as the Special Prosecutor. These are the very anti-corruption civil society organizations who are the leading foreign funded and influential NGOs in Ghana now constituting integral partners of a supposedly independent OSP.
The journalist for hire or for sale who was funded for the covert operations has received multiple year after year awards from this associate of the CDD-Ghana without any disclosure of the hiring or buying fees paid to the journalist for his entrepreneurial services as an investigative journalist. The audio and video materials admitting the funding used to hire or buy the investigative journalist is available on open source for those who care to research it. The reader should only make sure he accesses the full original audios and videos of the interviews and not the subsequent edited ones also now easily available on open source.
Political reaction to the judgment at UPSA in lecture on financing political campaigns
I also found it amazing that the judgment of the trial court became an instrument of cheap politicking on 22 March 2023 at a lecture on financing political campaigns, at the UPSA auditorium.
The august Speaker, who is also a contender for one of the political party’s flagbearership position at the coming party primaries was quoted as having said that:
“God willing, in 2025, when I have the opportunity to be the President of Ghana who has been a President before, I will come with priceless experience to fix our broken nation. I want us to build the Ghana we want together by writing – not footnotes, not pages but – chapters in the anticorruption history of our dear country Ghana. We must also uphold human rights, including freedom of expression and not be describing some journalists as terrorists.” (Emphasis supplied).
The problem I have with the insertion of the above last sentence as a cheap innuendo and malicious castigation of the court and the judge in the Speaker’s speech is that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo excelled and exhibited more sophistication in deceiving Ghanaians for their votes at the 2016 elections only to throw those values and promises to the wind as President of Ghana. My second issue was whether the former Excellency even found time to read the trial judge’s 64 -page judgment in which the judge reminded himself in Section H, at page 11 to 13 of his considered judgment on “H. Defamation and Freedom of Expression.”
As part of the trial judge’s analysis of freedom of expression versus the right to human dignity and its defence through the law of defamation, the court, amongst other things, at page 13 paragraph 2 stated that:
“The right to free speech and dignity of the individual are two competing constitutionally guaranteed values, none of which is superior to the other…In contest in this case is the defendant’s right to free speech and expression, and the plaintiff’s right to the inviolability of his dignity and reputation…The law of defamation however gives this court jurisdiction to umpire a dispute between an individual’s right to dignity, and the right to free speech and expression, as this case presents.”
I shudder to think that the august Speaker at the UPSA whose main topic had to do with financing political campaigns was just copying from Nana Akufo Addo’s 2015-2016 over flogged psychological deception play book just to attain political power. My third concern was the deceptive allegation that the trial judge tagged journalist as terrorists without reference to the context of the findings and decisions contained in the trial court’s judgment. The judgment states upon the available evidence at pages 60 to 62 of the judgment that:
‘In his evidence in chief, defendant contended that the meeting in exhibit KOA4, was to plot to entrap the Prime Minister of Ivory Coast and the President of Ghana. The conversations in exhibits KOA3 and KOA4 appear very much to confirm that claim. …As the fake Sheik stated in exhibit KOA3 “they planned it very well.”
The President and the Prime Minister who plaintiff and his team targeted are the leaders of their nations. They embody the soul and spirit of the nations. ….However, a pre-emptily, unjustified attacks on their credibility, unprovoked by any credible suspicion of a specific act of corruption engaged in or about to be engaged in by them, such as drawing them into a trap so as to be caught in a contrived corruption set up, as was alleged by the defendant, and backed by exhibits KOA4, was unwarranted and devious. It should be understood that as officers caught by plaintiff in his investigations have lost their jobs, an entrapped president may be compelled to resign out of shame or public pressure. That means, the plaintiff through his investigative antics can cause the removal of a president, and thereby upend the mandate given to him at the elections. That is not investigative journalism. It is investigative terrorism. It is exercise of indirect political power under the cloak of journalism (page 60). The serious aspect is that political, enemies of a president who could not stand him at an election, may hire the plaintiff to entrap him to undermine his presidency. Enemies of a state can also hire him just to destroy the political hierarchy.
Xxxx
In all honesty, the plot by plaintiff and his group in exhibit KOA4 has nothing to do with journalism. It was a scheme for grabbing power by the back door and satisfying plaintiff’s insatiable taste for power, publicity, fame, awards, and rewards. Since the president is an embodiment of the soul of the nation, any unwarranted plot out of nothing to entrap him to destroy his reputation and undermine his authority is reproachable.
The attacks of defendant on plaintiff on that ground deserves commendation and not condemnation (page 61). I hold in respect of exhibits KOA3 and KOA4, that any statements based on them were justified and passed the test of fair comment. In the result, the court finds established the defence of justification and fair comment in relation to the statements of defendant based on exhibits KOA1, KOA2, KOA3 and KOA4. Since those statements were justified, they could not have actually defamed the plaintiff (pages 62).’ I will rest my comments and criticism about the unwarranted political intervention by the former President without stirring further the hornets’ nest with other observations on the integrity of being an honest leader and a return of a Christ the messiah operating on my mind.
Judgment based on evaluation of Exhibits, facts and evidence permissible by law
The trial judge’s findings and conclusions are derived from the evidence as he evaluated them from “Exhibits KOA1, KOA2, KOA3 and KOA4”.
I hold no brief for his appreciation of the facts, the evidence and conclusions on the law. But he is empowered by the 1992 Constitution to perform his judicial functions and exercise the judicial power entrusted to him as a superior court judge. The appellate process is clearly provided for in the Constitution and laws of Ghana to ensure the rule of law and not the rule of public opinion for the attainment of raw abusive political power.
RESPONSIBILITY OF ANTI-CORRUPTION CRUSADERS AND POLITICAL LEADERS
I hold the view that those who aspire to genuinely crusade against corruption as investigative journalists, and to lead this nation in the exercise of the executive power ought to show an example in upholding the integrity of the judicial process instead lending their voices to the cohorts of a losing party to scandalize and bring the administration of justice into disrepute. It should also be remembered that there are abundant documentary and other evidence of who created and facilitated Anas A. Anas’s rise as an anti-corruption entrepreneur and a covert political agent with unaccountable privileges. The OSP investigated these facts during my tenure in the pending Charles Bissue corruption investigation case reported to the OSP by letter under the signature of Kissi Agyebeng, who was then Anas A. Anas’ law firm partner at Cromwell Gray LLP. Kissi Agyebeng is now the Special Prosecutor.
Anti-corruption as an endemic profitable enterprise for covert property acquisitions
The fight against corruption has become the darling child of the most corrupt members of civil society organizations who see anti-corruption as a profitable enterprise which protects and removes every suspicion from those entrepreneurs of being endemically corrupt themselves. It is easy to squander donor funds under the guise of fighting corruption without raising an eyebrow. I wish one could make an inventory of the properties acquired by some of the management of the so called entrepreneurial anti-corruption civil society organizations and compare them to the acquisitions made by some honest public officers and the honest political office holder after several years of long service to mother Ghana.
CORRUPT NON-DISCLOSURES OF BENEFICIAL INTERESTS AND CONCLUSIONS
As I went about studying, examining, and analyzing the 64-page judgment in ANAS A. ANAS v KENNEDY AGYEPONG and researching the comments against the judgment I came across the fact that some of the critics and participants in the discourse on the judgment including JoyNews’ Newsfile were recipients of the Anas Award for Best Journalist set up by The Press Foundation. The Press Foundation, from open source material, was established by Anas A. Anas’s agent and attorney in the GHS25million defamation case, Listowell Bukarson, who commenced the action on Anas’ behalf as the plaintiff.
These recipients of the Anas Award for Best Journalist have written, conducted radio and TV interviews scurrilously abusing and scandalizing the court without disclosing their interest and stake in the fortunes of Anas. A. Anas as the plaintiff or in his agent in the court who conferred the awards upon them in Kumasi and Bolgatanga through the Press Foundation. This is evidence of malicious criticism of the court and the trial judge. Presenting oneself to the public as an honest, impartial, and independent broker in maliciously criticizing the judgment of the court and scandalizing the court while being a beneficiary of an award set up in the suppose honour of the losing plaintiff is unpardonable corruption in the broadest and unethical sense.
Courting and creating a perception of goodwill and integrity from the innocent public through subterfuge is a worse form of corruption also in a broadest and immoral sense. It is professionally unethical and corrupt, whichever profession or professions one belongs to. Ghana shall rise again one day in probity, transparency, and accountability under the 1992 Constitution.
Former President John Dramani Mahama has been urged to apologize to Ghanaian students for comparing the food they eat in classrooms to that of dogs, according to the ministry of education’s spokeswoman, Kwasi Kwarteng.
As part of the rollout of the government’s flagship program, Free Senior High School, Mr. Mahama raised concern over the subpar quality of the food being served in the various Senior High Schools (SHSs) during his campaign tour in the Central Region (Free SHS).
John Dramani Mahama claims that the pupils are sickened and uncomfortable by the subpar food that is supplied to them.
“Today, if you go to see the kind of food the children are eating in the schools…you shudder to serve such food to your dogs at home,” he told delegates and party members in the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa Constituency.
Reacting to Mr Mahama’s comment, Mr Kwarteng said it is unpresidential for the former President to speak that way.
In a Facebook post, Mr Kwarteng noted “Former President John Dramani Mahama is known for his unpresidential remarks but little did we know he could be such loose, vulgar and low. How do you equate food for human beings to that of dogs? Jesus Christ!
“Mr Mahama is not only wrong in demeaning our collective efforts in providing quality education for Ghanaian students but he’s also wrong for reducing the school children to dogs. That’s insulting.
“Comments like this is not acceptable. Is backward, retrogressive, negative and unpresidential.
“Somebody whose leadership witnessed the worst educational outcomes ever shouldn’t be making such comments. He should apologize to Ghanaian Children!”
The president of Kenya, William Ruto, has renounced same-sex couples and emphasized that his nation will firmly adhere to what its customs, traditions, and 2010 Constitution say regarding marriage and relationships.
He praised the constitution as one of the most advanced documents for the range of human rights it established and declared that Kenyans would respect all rights to the extent that they were recognized by law.
He stressed in an interview with a German broadcaster, however, that his country has no issue with how marriage is interpreted or understood in other jurisdictions.
“In Kenya, the only understanding of relationships around marriage is around men marrying women, that is the context of relationship that exist in Kenya and is provided for in our constitution.
“It (same-sex marriage) can happen elsewhere, we have no issue with people celebrating their issues in America in other countries, that is their choosing,” he stressed when asked about a recent anti-same-sex law promulgated in neighbouring Uganda.
“In Kenya, we have taken a position that position of the Constitution, the position of the laws as it is today, if that is what they want to do, we cannot dictate to Germans or French or Americans or Ugandans if that is what they want to do.
“That is theirs to do, for us as a country, we have taken a position that is informed by our culture, our tradition, our Constitution and our laws,” he stressed.
Partnerships between African governments will focus on what America can do with Africa, not only what it can do for Africa, according to USA Vice President Kamala Harris.
She made this statement while giving a keynote speech on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 at the Black Stars Square in Accra as part of her activities while visiting Ghana.
“So, then, what does it mean that the United States of America is all in? It means that the United States is committed to strengthening our partnerships across the continent of Africa — partnerships with governments, the private sector, civil society, and all of you.
“Partnerships based on openness, inclusiveness, candor, shared interests, and mutual benefits,” she said.
She continued,”And to be clear, America will be guided not by what we can do for our African partners, but what we can do with our African partners. Together, she said America and Africa will address the challenges they face and and as well pursue the incredible opportunities ahead.
Investment in innovation
Kamala Harris also recommended the investment in innovation for African Governments.
“Innovation I believe to be the pursuit of what can be unburdened by what has been. Innovation results in one’s ability not only to see, but to do things differently. New methods, new products, new approaches, new ideas. We innovate to be more effective and to solve problems.
“From the invention of new technology, to the origin of social movements, innovation has come about by challenging the premise, questioning the status quo, and bold thinking,” she said.
The US Vice President added that, ”And so to the young leaders here today, you, by your very nature, are dreamers and innovators. It is your spark, your creativity, and your determination that will drive the future.
“And with that then, African ideas and innovations will shape the future of the world. And so we must invest in the African ingenuity and creativity, which will unlock incredible economic growth and opportunities, not only for the people of the 54 countries that make up this diverse continent, but for the American people and people around the world.”
On Wednesday, Tony Elumelu, a multibillionaire businessman and the Group Chairman of United Bank for Africa, hosted Davido to his mansion to celebrate the birthday of his daughter Oge.
Mr Elumelu’s daughter Oge has attained the age of 21 on March 29, 2023.
The moment the musician arrived and was welcomed by Elumelu was caught on camera and posted to the businessman’s Instagram feed.
Another slide showed the DMW label boss in a conversation with Elumelu as the businessman revealed in a caption that they spoke about the singer’s 4th studio album Timeless set to drop on Friday, March 31 and his plans for the year.
The birthday celebrant, who appears to be a fan of the singer, also posed for a selfie with him.
The OBO crooner’s visit has generated reactions on social media as it comes days after Wizkid performed at the billionaire’s 60th birthday party.
Nollywood star Yul Edochie’s followers have expressed their sympathies to the family, sequel the passing of Kambilichukwu, the actor’s first child.
On Thursday morning, news of the actor’s first son being taken to the hospital after being unconscious broke.
According to a source who talked to Vanguard under the condition of anonymity, at the time this article was written, Yul had confirmed Kambilichukwu’s passing.
May’s sister who was at the scene said the boy read throughout the night preparing for his exam today. After his exam in school, he joined his mates to play football and that’s when he developed a seizure and was rushed to Mother and Child Hospital. All efforts by the doctors to resuscitate him proved abortive, the report added.
This is coming two months after Yul Edochie and his first wife May, celebrated their first son and second child as he turned 16; showering encomiums and blessings on him.
Reacting on social media to the passing of Kambilichukwu, Nigerians have expressed their sadness, commiserating with the actor over the tragic event.
@Xrixywalker: There’s no pain compared to that of a parent losing a child. Not just a new born, but a child they’ve grown to love. 💔
@TheOmegaMessiah: I cannot imagine the pain Yul and his family must be feeling. May God grant them the strength to bear this immeasurable loss. RIP to the young man. 😥🙏🏾
@ayadewale: My God ….this is what I never want to hear happens to anybody ….cos I know what I pass through when this happen to me ….mr yul be strong ….your comfort right now can only be from God ….😭
@spiderchi1: Very sad news indeed. 💔💔💔 This boy just turned 16 a while back. This is heartbreaking. May his soul rest in peace. My heart goes out to May. What manner of pain is she going through now? @YulEdochie return somebody’s wife and repair your home.
@OlawuyiTaiwoM: What? There is no word for a parent who loses a child. I pray God bless May and Yul Edochie with the comfort of His love that they may face each new day with hope and the certainty that nothing can destroy the good that has been given. I’m so sorry🥹
@D_Obidientbadie: May was just trying to recover after Yul’s betrayal , now this?.My goodness!this is too much for one woman.
@CharlesDaniel3: What a colossal loss!!! My deepest condolences to the entire family…🙏🙏🙏
Russian Embassy in Accra has disputed some allegations made by American Vice President Kamala Harris during her visit in Ghana for three days.
The precise remarks related to concerns about food security in relation to the war between Russia and Ukraine, with Harris allegedly blaming Moscow of starting a scenario where grain exports have been halted.
The Embassy tweeted a picture that referred to Harris’ remarks as being false and listed what they claimed to be the facts of Russia’s grain supply.
Their tweet was captioned: “The recent visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris to Ghana hasn’t gone without another portion of anti-Russian fakes that do not stand a simple fact-checking.”
What Kamala reportedly said:
“In terms of the Russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine. There have been a number of impacts globally and to the United States included. In particular, it relates to the prevalence of our ability to have access to certain foods, and grain in particular, globally has been an issue.”
The facts as stated by the Embassy
FACT: European officials acknowledged that Ukraine has already supplied 53 million tonnes of grain and other food products – its annual export amount (for comparison: in 2019-2020 season – 54.9 M tonnes, in 2020-2021 – 44.9 M tonnnes.
QUESTION: Why is then Africa facing food insecurity?
ANSWER: 1) Because of EU and US sanctions that block the RUSSIAN grain export.
2) Because 45% of the total volume of grain exported from Ukraine went to Europe and only 3% went to Africa.
The recent visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris to Ghana hasn't gone without another portion of anti-Russian fakes that do not stand a simple fact-checking. pic.twitter.com/jQuvK3GJJG
— Russian Embassy in Ghana (@RusEmbGhanaEng) March 29, 2023
A woman sobs on social media after her husband promised to pay her $3 million so they can have a threesome involving their maid.
The woman stated her spouse promised her N3 million if she concedes to the offer. She sought help through the @couplestherapies, couple’s counseling platform on Instagram.
“My husband wants a threesome with our maid. He promised me a considerable sum if I allowed our maid to join us. I told him it will bring see finish, and he said I can decide to send the maid away after that.
She claimed that her husband’s advice put her in a challenging predicament.
Adding that her husband has never lied to her or concealed anything regarding his side ladies.
“One thing I know about my husband is that he doesn’t hide anything. He will do something with his full chest and tell you if he wants to do something. He has never hidden his side chick.
According to her, he has been involved with two other women over the six years of their marriage, but he has never requested a threesome with them.
“We remarried for 6 years, and he has dated 2 girls. But why will he ask for a threesome with my maid. “Not even his side chick. ”
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has made a statement regarding the recent dismissal of a defamation lawsuit Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, a member of parliament for Assin Central, had filed.
Investigative journalist and attorney Anas Aremeyaw Anas filed the lawsuit and sought damages in the amount of 25 million cedis.
After reading the 64-page judgement, Amidu wrote a comprehensive analysis of it. He made numerous comments regarding the decision, starting with how Anas filed the case and choose which witnesses to call.
He observed how Anas “knowingly and voluntarily caused his action to be commenced by one Listowell Bukarson on behalf of Anas A. Anas as the plaintiff” via a power of attorney authorizing Bukarson to bring the action in the name of the plaintiff, Anas A. Anas on 18 June 2018.
Sequel to the filing, the writ of summons was amended on 20 November 2018 after the Agyapong had filed his statement of defence on 13 November 2018. The Plaintiff then replied on 21 January 2019 to close the pleadings.
Amidu said whiles he appreciated the legality of the route that Anas chose to file his case, “The question is whether the attorney can testify on behalf of the plaintiff on matters which are not within his personal knowledge,” the piece read in part.
He, however, observed that the decision by Anas to use his a surrogate to give evidence showed that he was really not ready to speak to the issues and to be cross examined in his own case.
“Did the attorney see or witness the transactions alleged? As far as the requirement that he should testify about what he actually did see or heard is concerned, the attorney could not testify about what the plaintiff himself witnessed or heard. The rule against admissibility of hearsay evidence is statutory.
“Anas A. Anas, the plaintiff put himself in a situation of being incapable of giving relevant and primary evidence in person and be cross-examined because he lives in the fear of his own shadow as an anti-corruption entrepreneur and not as a genuine anti-corruption crusader.
“Anas A. Anas thus lost the only opportunity to publicly tell the court his version of the facts within his personal knowledge and to be cross-examined to establish his credibility. Genuine anti-corruption crusaders do not hide their faces behind masks,” he stressed.
Amidu’s writeup tited: “SCANDALIZING THE COURT BY COHORTS OF ANTI-CORRUPTION ENTERPRENUERS AS A RESULT OF THE ANAS A. ANAS v KENNEDY AGYEPONG JUDGMENT IS DANGEROUS FOR GHANA’S DEMOCRACY: BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU,” went on to touch on other issues about the ruling and the trial judge as well as copious critique of how civil society and political actors have made questionable comments on same.
Anas vs. Ken Agyapong defamation case
An Accra High Court on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, struck out a defamation suit brought by investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas against Assin Central Member of Parliament, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong.
The plaintiff, filed the case in 2018, seeking among other reliefs monetary damages to the tune of GH¢25 million.
However, the court presided by Justice Eric Baah despite finding various claims made by the defendant against the plaintiff as potentially defamatory, ruled that the comments were factual and fair.
The court subsequently dismissed the suit and awarded the defendant a sum of 50,000 Ghana cedis to cover his legal costs.
The MP has subsequently referred to the ruling as a victory for straight talk over investigative terrorism.
The journalist also expressed grave misgivings about the ruling describing it in part as a travesty of justice. He, has also confirmed that his legal team will file an appeal, stressing that his fight against corruption will continue unabated.
The opposition Patriotic Front (PF) has warned Zambabians against organizing anti-gay rights demonstrations while US Vice-President Kamala Harris is visiting the nation.
According to the international media, the party intends to demonstrate before the democracy summit, which will be held in the capital city of Lusaka.
Kamala Harris is set to speak at the summit, which is being co-hosted by Zambia, the US, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, and South Korea, and is anticipated to arrive in the southern African nation on Friday.
The gathering is allegedly a part of a plan to force gay rights on Zambians, according to approximately 50 members of parliament.
Amnesty International Zambia has urged the administration to defend LGBTQ rights vehemently and to prevent demonstrations from delaying the summit.
According to Security Minister Jack Mwiimbu, the government would not tolerate lawlessness at the conference.
Zimbabwean ambassador, Prophet Uebert Angel has been exposed for laundering millions of dollars through a gold-smuggling scheme from Zimbabwe to Dubai.
This was revealed through an undercover operation by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit.
Being appointed as ambassador-at-large and a presidential envoy by Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa in March 2021, Angel told reporters that he is in the capacity to carry large volumes of cash into the country using his diplomatic status.
“I’m an ambassador at large and an ambassador to 85 countries but on this special envoy am a representative of the president. That means i can sign contracts and treaties with government without the president getting involved, ” the acclaimed prophet told the reporters in the video during their investigations.
In furtherance to this, Angel assured the supposed Chinese criminals that a call on the president of miners association would make the gold readily available at the very minute he was speaking.
“You want gold, gold we can do it right now, we can make the call right now, and it’s done,” he bragged.
Under The vienna convention, states have agreed to exempt diplomatic languages from airport searches.
Hence, the diplomatic privilege used by Mr Angel to smuggle the gold items out of the country.
“Right now I can put a bag like this with 1.2 billion and put red tape written, diplomat. That it. It is a very very easy thing, it will land in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe can’t touch it until i get to my house.”
So far the president of Zimbabwe is yet to speak on the matter.
Zimbabwean journalist and anti-corruption activist, Hopewell Chin’ono in a live interview with a journalist commended the international media for putting out a not new exposé but this time with a detailed evidence on camera.
“ What Aljazeera has done which we were not able to do is to put the evidence and have the people themselves speaking of how they are involved in looting of public funds, the smuggling of natural resources and the laundering of monies used in state institutions in the documentary”
For him, he has been thrown into prison on three occasions for obvious reasons thus, most journalists who come across similar information hesitate to put it out for the fear of putting their lives in danger.
Meanwhile the ruling party has shared a post refuting the accusations leveled against the government official, Mr Chin’ono mentioned.
Apparently, Uebert Angel’s ambassadorial appointment by the president in 2021 obliged him to bring investments into Zimbabwe because the country’s own currency has lost value in international trade due to hyperinflation.
Thus a commodity like gold is a good way to earn dollars, but international sanctions imposed on the country make it difficult for the government to export gold because of the additional scrutiny on officials in power.
“So you have to figure out other ways to do that,” Karen Greenaway, a former FBI investigator who tracks international money laundering schemes, told Al Jazeera. One way around: individual gold miners, who don’t face those restrictions.
This scenario makes Zimbabwe fertile ground for money launderers who can help the country earn dollars in exchange for gold.
Head of the Zimbabwe Miners Association, Henrietta Rushwaya, is at the center of Angel’s operations trading gold for illegal currency. On a phone call with Angel and the reporters, Rushwaya, who is also the niece of President Mnangagwa, said that smuggling 100kg of gold each week would be simple.
The idea would need an initial filthy cash investment of $10 million into Fidelity, the government’s gold refinery. Fidelity would set aside $5 million of the total as a reserve during the con, and the remaining amount would be used to purchase gold every week.
A further $5 million would be brought in to purchase more gold after the first purchase, and so on until all the money had been laundered into the precious metal, which would then be sold globally for legal, clean money.
A Kenyan legislator, Kullow Maalim Hassan, has passed away while undergoing treatment at a hospital in the nation’s capital, Nairobi.
According to international media reports, the second-term member of parliament for Kenya’s Banisa seat was taken to the hospital after being injured in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident.
His relatives told the media that the Lawmaker was killed on Tuesday night March 28 2023, after being struck by a motorcycle rider on Saturday March 26 2023.
President Ruto and other Lawmakers have since been paying tributes to their colleagues on social media.
Watch the tweets below
“Maalim was a dedicated and committed public servant,” said Kimani Ichung’wah, the majority leader in parliament.
“Kullow was a good person and particularly dedicated to his oversight as well as other parliamentary duties,” said Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse.
Condolences to the people of Banissa Constituency for losing your MP, Kulow Maalim Hassan.
I extend my condolences to the family, colleagues and friends. We have lost a dedicated public servant and a passionate advocate for the people and interests of Mandera County as a whole. pic.twitter.com/gEnZ1s1e1Y
— William Samoei Ruto, PhD (@WilliamsRuto) March 29, 2023
Inaa Lillah Wainaa Illahi Rajicuun.
It is with a heavy heart that I have woken up to the sad news of the sudden demise of my brother and colleague Hon. Kulow Maalim Hassan; MP, Banissa Constituency, a brother in faith and comrade in the North Eastern Province (NEP) leadership. pic.twitter.com/Oh4zyzAHTh
Really Shocked At The Death Of My Colleague The Hon Kulow Maalim Hassan, MP Banissa Constituency, With Whom We’ve Been Serving In The Public Accounts Committee! Life Is Truly Fleeting! Fare Thee Well My Brother!🕊🕊🕊 pic.twitter.com/wRcXneW0LW
— Dennis Itumbi CBS – Commentary (@Itumbi_Denis) March 29, 2023
Gutted to hear the news of the demise of Banisa Constituency Member of Parliament Hon.Kulow Maalim Hassan. A very humble legislator. I knew Hon. Kulow during my days at the Offices of the Deputy President (2018-2022)when he would follow closely matters related to TVET for his… pic.twitter.com/1Fck8nwEDJ
My sincere condolences go out to the residents of Banisa Constituency on the passing of their representative Kulow Maalim Hassan. Kulow Maalim was a passionate and committed legislator who distinguished himself in serving his constituents during my tenure as Speaker of the NA. pic.twitter.com/3uAdH2et6F
Former National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Techiman South, Adjei Mensah has indicated that some MPs will continue to be lured into taking bribes as much as long as inequality exists in the House.
He asserts that because of the financial hardships certain MPs, particularly those who are in the minority or who are members of the opposition party, are experiencing, they would continue to exchange their votes for favors.
“We have to situate the issue in its right context. With the way we conduct our politics in this country, such issues will continue for as long as we don’t change things. When you are demanding something from God and you don’t get it, if the devil offers it you, you have to take it.
“Parliament is not a church; we do not go to parliament to worship God. We go to fight for power. The Akans have a saying that when things become critical in your quest for power, sell your mother to acquire the power and when you get the power, use it to get your mother back… Money is now an underlying factor in our politics,” he stated on Asempa FM’s Ekosiisen.
The former MP was commenting on the voting conducted in parliament on Friday, March 24, 2023, when some members of the minority caucus defied a directive by their party and voted for the approval of some six ministers nominated by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The incident has led to allegations of inducement and bribery being made against the MPs who voted in violation of the directive by the opposition party during the secret balloting.
But according to the former NDC MP, members of the minority caucus who are impoverished and are victims of inequality cannot feed on loyalty to their party.
“There is someone who knows that the majority will by all means pay something to them ahead of their primaries and such a person knows very well that he will be saying goodbye to parliament if he refuses to accept such an offer.
“So, if by the grace of God, something is being offered to you, you are claiming party loyalty or whatever. We don’t eat that loyalty. If because of loyalty you won’t accept it that is your choice. But you are going to come home to live that kind of miserable life that former MPs live,” he stated.
Asked by the host if members of the House do not work with principles, the former Techiman South MP retorted saying “Massa, if you can eat principles, go and eat it.”
Member of Parliament for the Ningo Prampram Constituency, Sam Nartey George, has criticized Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States of America, for her remark regarding LGBT+ (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, and questioning) activities in Ghana.
Sam George claims that the vice president is unqualified to instruct Ghanaians on human rights concerns because human rights abuses are widespread in her native nation. The vice president is now in Ghana to develop ties between Ghana and the United States.
He proceeded by suggesting that Americans should understand the legislative process in order to address such a difficult problem because human rights issues are prevalent in the US.
Speaking in an interview with Citi FM on March 28, 2023, Sam George added that the American people should visit Ghana and learn a few things about the lawmaking process from our parliament because they are willing to assist them.
“For the president to run away from his own government’s position on the Bill is unbelievable and worrying but let me assure you that we are not going to be cowed by the undemocratic comments of the American Vice President.
“The American people should be coming to Ghana to learn a few things from our Parliament when it comes to issues of lawmaking because we will be in a good position to help them,” he stressed.
He voiced unhappiness with President Akufo-Addo for his recent remarks regarding the LGBTQI+ bill when he spoke with Kamala Harris at a joint press conference.
President Akufo-Addo is quoted to have said that the anti-LGBT bill, which was championed by “only a hand full of MPs”, is currently being considered by Parliament.
Akufo-Addo added that even if the bill is passed, it will still have to be ratified by him.
It may be recalled that Kamala Harris spoke on the issue of LGBTQ+ activities while responding to a question at Jubilee House, in Accra, on Monday, March 27, Kamala Harris said that for her, the LGBTQ+ issue was one that bordered on human rights.
She added that every person has the right to live as he/she wants.
“Let me be clear about where we stand. First of all, for the American press who are here, you know that a great deal of work in my career has been to address human rights issues and equality issues across the board including those related to the LGBT community.
“And I feel very strongly about the importance of supporting freedom and supporting and fighting for equality among all people and that all people be treated equally.
“I will also say that this is an issue that we consider and I consider to be a human rights issue and that will not change,” she stressed.
The National Democratic Party’s (NDC) deputy general secretary, Mustapha Gbande has made claims that NDC lawmakers who supported president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-nominations Addo’s for cabinet positions accepted bribes.
He claims that the aforementioned MPs who marketed their services in order to undermine the party will not escape punishment because they will endure heavenly repercussions.
He added that the MPs will spend all the money they took on hospital bills, that they will suffer and also face the wrath of God.
Speaking in an interview with Neat FM on March 27, 2023, he stressed: “You see, when NPP is giving you food, they will make it beautiful but under it is poison. What they are doing is getting a stand to destroy you.
“Nobody in the NPP can come and give me a bribe, because when you try it, I will do a press conference. I will prefer to work with an empty stomach and serve my party until the day that God will answer our prayer.
“…when they finished, the director of communications of the NPP went on the radio to say that the minority MPs, some of them have decided to commercialize their services and Bryan Acheampong was boasting of controlling the minority in Parliament…those individuals by now, they have regretted their actions.
“What will you profit if you betray a man, have everything on earth, and have no God? What they have done, if God doesn’t punish them, human beings will punish them.
“What I’m saying is that they will not spend that money and go scot-free, they will pay hospital bills. You can’t betray the will of the people…if the investigations does not expose them, God will punish them. They won’t see peace, you don’t betray people like that.”
Prior to the vetting of ministerial nominees by the Appointments Committee of Parliament, the NDC had issued a directive to its MPs to reject the nominees in demand for a reduction in the size of the current government.
However, when the House conducted a secret ballot on the nominees, all six got overwhelming votes despite the equal numbers on both sides of the House.
The outcome of the voting process has led to accusations of treachery being made against the minority MPs.
Some members of the caucus have since taken to social media to express their disappointment with the result while others have sought to claim their innocence.
Young Africans have been urged by US Vice President Kamala Harris to make an effort to give their fair share to the development of the continent.
Madam Harris is confident that this will help to maintain the mission to realize Africa’s enormous potential and its role in determining the course of the world.
Madam Harris is optimistic that this will work towards keeping to the mission to realise the vast potential in Africa and its role in shaping the world’s future.
She made this comment when she addressed hundreds of people who throng the Black Star Square in Accra to hear her public lecture.
Madam Harris is currently embarking on a one-
Madam Harris is optimistic that this will work towards keeping to the mission to realise the vast potential inAfricaand its role in shaping the world’s future.
She made this comment when she addressed hundreds of people who throng the Black Star Square in Accra to hear her public lecture.
Madam Harris is currently embarking on a one-week tour which will see her visit Ghana and two other African countries – Tanzania and Zambia.
“So all of this to say you and in particular the young leaders here, you have a role to play and together we have a role to play. So then, let us dream with ambition and lead with conviction,” she said.
This forms part of her three-day visit to Ghana. Speaking to the teeming youth on Tuesday, Kamala Haris expressed excitement about the possibility of positive change awaiting the world if industrious African youth put their shoulders to the wheel.
“I am optimistic about the future of the world because of you, the woman who will shatter every glass ceiling, the entrepreneur who will identify the next digital breakthrough, the activist to fight for the dignity of every human being, student and scientist, athletes and artists, farmers and fishers and the young innovators who will solve problems that we haven’t yet identified with solutions. We can’t even yet imagine,” she added.
After the speech, the US Vice President is expected to tour the Cape Coast Castle where she may deliver another remark.
Kamala Harris touched down at Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport on Sunday, March 26, 2023.
Dental Surgeon, Dr. Louisa Ansong-Satekla has emphasized that deaths caused by oral diseases are avoidable if individuals will make it a habit to consult a dentist early when they have a dental problem.
Stonebwoy’s wife spoke exclusively to the media on the sidelines of the World Oral Health Day observation held at the Duala Medical Centre, Burma Camp, Accra.
She indicated that her earnest message to the public is that “we all give oral health the attention it so desperately needs and requires because oral health forms a great part of our overall well-being and so this is why a such as this is being commemorated and we’re doing so much, especially in this part of the world where oral health is seen by many as a luxury and not the necessity that it actually is.”
“It’s important that we book appointments to see our dentists even when there is nothing wrong because unfortunately here, it seems that most people only go and see a dentist when they are in pain and by which time all the damage has already been done but prevention is key,” the Official FDI World Dental Federation Ambassador for World Oral Health Day stressed.
She entreated the public to visit a dentist at least twice a year “just to make sure that everything is okay because we’re losing more and more people from diseases such as oral cancer which should not be the case.”
“Early detection saves lives,” she emphasised. “It’s very important that we take note of these things and then we take actions to prevent loss of lives and things like that.”
Dr. Louisa Satekla chaired the World Oral Health Day observation organised by and held at the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) Duala Medical Centre, Burma Camp, Accra, Monday, March 20, 2023.
The 2023 World Oral Health Day celebration is themed: Be proud of your mouth.
National Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Joseph Yamin, has declared that the party will take all necessary steps to ensure that the minority members who supported the president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s ministerial picks are removed.
He claims that after those responsible are removed, the party would take action against them to dissuade others from engaging in similar behavior.
“We won’t create a platform for you to be able to get to the house, only for you to turn against the actions and directives. We will not stop until we fish out who and who [did that] and if we find out, it’s going to be a step to deter others. We sometimes behave as if we are the only political party in this country,” the media quoted him.
Joseph Yamin also added that the party will not create an opportunity of the MPs only to turn down directives of the party as he recounts the case of NPP MPs calling for the removal of Ken Ofori-Atta yet obeyed the directive of the party not to partake in the censure motion.
“I remember that when the NPP MPs decided that the finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta should step down, the Minority supported their claim, and a decision was to be taken on the floor of Parliament. A directive from the head office of the NPP to the very MPs who said that the finance minister should resign asking them to go by the party’s position, and they did.”
Parliament approves all six nominees, two Supreme Court Justices:
Parliament on Friday, March 24 approved all six ministerial nominees as well as the nominees of the supreme court of President Akufo-Addo after a heated debate, 24 hours prior, and a tense voting process.
Final results declared by Speaker Alban Bagbin showed that all nominees got more votes than the minimum of 138 votes required because out of the 275 eligible voters, there were three absent.
Some Members of Parliament (MPs) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) did not adhere to the decision of the party to vote against the approval of the nominees.
Kobina Tahiru Hammond (MP for Adansi Asokwa) was approved as the Minister of Trade and Industry and Bryan Acheampong (MP for Abetifi) as the Minister of Food and Agriculture.
Other nominees who were approved include Stephen Asamoah Boateng, as Ministry of Chieftaincy; Mohammed Amin Adam, Minister of State (Ministry of Finance), and Osei Bonsu Amoah, Ministry of Local Government.
Stephen Amoah, the Member of Parliament for Nhyiaeso, was also approved as the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry.
The Supreme Court nominees who were approved include George Kingsley Koomson, Justice of the Court of Appeal, and Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu, Justice of the High Court.
In a daring prison break that shocked the nation, a convicted rapist who faked his own death is the target of a manhunt launched by police in South Africa, according to reports.
In May, Thabo Bester allegedly set himself on fire in a privately run prison in Bloemfontein, South Africa, according to authorities. However, at the weekend, police claimed DNA tests proved the charred remains found in the serial rapist’s cell belonged to someone else.
“At this point, our priority is to find this fugitive of justice and establish exactly how he faked his death,” police spokeswoman Athlenda Mathe told reporters on Monday.
Called the “Facebook rapist”, Bester allegedly lured victims on the social media platform before raping and robbing them. At least one victim was killed. In 2012, he was sentenced to life in prison for rape, robbery and murder.
On Sunday, police said an autopsy revealed the person found dead in Bester’s cell had died from blunt force trauma to the head before being set ablaze. A murder investigation has been opened.
The case has sparked outrage in South Africa, where women’s rights groups have long accused the government of not doing enough to tackle violence against women.
“The unfolding of this story has been like a movie and sent shivers down everyone’s spines. … I can imagine what it did to the victims,” said Bafana Khumalo, co-director of the NGO Sonke Gender Justice.
From October to December, police recorded more than 12,000 rapes across the country.
Doubts about Bester’s death were first raised by local media outlet GroundUp in November.
Photographs purportedly showing the convict grocery shopping in an affluent Johannesburg suburb have since surfaced. Some women have also come forward alleging the convict made contact with them on social media.
Before his escape, Bester also reportedly ran a scam media business from inside prison using a false name.
According to local outlet News24, he posed as head of 21st Century Media, a phantom event and production company that was a supposed subsidiary of the American company 21st Century Fox.
The media company promoted a 2018 event that advertised Hollywood superstars but turned out to be a scam, the paper said. A video of Bester addressing a company event via video call from behind bars while pretending to be in New York has gone viral.
“The escape of Bester … is testament to the incompetence of the Correctional Services system, and the endemic corruption in the sector,” the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party said in a statement.
Police have appealed to the public for any information relevant to the case.
“We want to find people who are directly involved in this matter as well as his accomplices,” Mathe said.
A member of parliament representing Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini, is the most recent member of the minority caucus to speak about what happened on March 24, 2023, in Parliament.
While some NDC members and caucus members have expressed anger over minority MPs voting to confirm six president-nominated ministers, the Tamale MP claims that he has been more angered by attempts to pretend innocence by some people while others are being demonized.
“After two days, I’m now angry! Not angry at those who betrayed everyone, including themselves, but at those of us swearing our innocence whilst cursing and witch hunting others and those making us all, the guilty and innocent, do that. I know the most popular and politically correct thing to do now is to condemn, huff and puff, but anyone who knows me well enough knows, I’m not one to mostly give in to what is popular or politically correct,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
While analysing the entire episode, Suhuyini unlike some members of the caucus who have already spoken on the matter blamed the development on the decision by the NDC to impose directives on the caucus rather than allow the minority to take a position in consultation with the party.
Listing instances of voting carried out in the current parliament, he sought to draw a line between the results on issues where the caucus took its own position and when a directive had been imposed by the party.
Suhuyini made reference to the election of the current speaker, approval of some ministerial nominees in the past, the E-Levy vote, the vote on increasing VAT as well as the recent ministerial voting.
“Therefore, in the case of three votes in 1, 3 & 4, above, we won one but lost two. 3 was lost on a technicality which is difficult to blame on one person or group of people, unless we can show that those who gave the advice to walkout and those who supported that advice did so deliberately knowing it was going to cost us. 4 was lost on health grounds unless again we can show that the absentee MP did so deliberately.
“However, based on my experience during voting in 2 and 5 above, which we lost embarrassingly, the synergy between the party leadership and the caucus wasn’t perfect in both cases. So, instead of seeking to fix what makes it possible for traitors/witches to thrive on, we are focusing on the symptoms because that’s easy. That requires only some people, if they have ever disagreed with us or are not our buddies or for other reasons, to be put on the spotlight, declared guilty until proven innocent and the specks in their eyes plucked,” he added.
Prior to the Appointment Committee’s vetting of some six persons nominated by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for ministerial positions, the NDC had issued a directive to its MPs to reject the nominees in demand for a reduction in the size of the current government.
However, when the House last Friday conducted a secret ballot on the nominees, all six got overwhelming votes despite the equal numbers on both sides of the House.
The outcome of the voting process has led to accusations of treachery being made against the minority MPs.
Some members of the caucus have since taken to social media to express their disappointment with the result while others have sought to claim their innocence.
Read Suhuyini’s full post below:
A CAUCUS IN A PARTY
Like many, I was gobsmacked on Friday night when the results of our secret ballots on ministers were revealed. I couldn’t sleep the whole night after I got home. It felt like a general election defeat, and my bones at its joints ached as if they were falling apart.
After two days, I’m now angry!
Not angry at those who betrayed everyone, including themselves, but at those of us swearing our innocence whilst cursing and witch hunting others and those making us all, the guilty and innocent, do that. I know the most popular and politically correct thing to do now is to condemn, huff and puff, but anyone who knows me well enough knows, I’m not one to mostly give in to what is popular or politically correct.
I prefer to be on the side of what I deem fair and, in all instances, CORRECT!
No wonder one of the bases for some to suspect or even conclude that I’m among the renegades is because I criticized the WAY, including timing (emphasis mine), our parliamentary leadership was reshuffled. I still think it could have been done better, but my loyalty to our new leaders is absolute and indivisible.
That is why when the directive to reject the nominees was issued, as a member of the Appointment Committee, I asked these nominees the most uncomfortable and sometimes embarrassing questions. I joined our NDC side of the committee to recommend that all nominees be rejected at the plenary.
Even on the floor, at least, on the Supreme Court nominees, I was one of our debaters, giving reasons and calling on the house to reject the nominations. I have therefore decided that anyone in NDC who requires me to prove my integrity is not worth it and, so, even if I have evidence of how I voted, I will not bother to prove my innocence to such a person. It is enough indictment that adults like us can’t seek to do what is right when we are not recorded or watched. I always used to sign off radio with the words: “Don’t do what you will not like your neighbours to find out”.
I understand that we are a community that prefers general conversations to having difficult ones. In times like this, it is easy to condemn, huff, puff, and curse, and it is risky to try to understand why it happened and how it could have been avoided.
So before I proceed further, let me say that I know who I am, so I don’t care if I’m held responsible for even all the thirty-two votes for Bryan Acheampong, 19 votes for K.T. Hammond and about 12 votes for Asabee etc.
However, the following facts ought to be known and examined dispassionately:
1. The Minority Caucus that probably voted en bloc to get a Speaker elected from among us, first took the decision together as a caucus to propose a name for Speaker, before we brought the party and former president along. This provided the caucus with immense encouragement and guidance.
2. The same Minority Caucus that lost the Hawa Koomson, Kojo Opong Nkrumah, etc, ministerial nominees vote, faltered when members on the Appointment Committee, in recommending nominees for the plenary to reject, left out the security ministers.
The party grassroots and leadership were unhappy that we did and demanded that we should amend our recommendations to include the security ministers. The leadership of the caucus thought it was too late to do so and pleaded with party leadership to allow the caucus to focus and vote on those already recommended, even though they acknowledged that they should have included the security ministers in their initial recommendations, especially because some of us on the Appointment Committee suggested it but were out-voted. That compromise between caucus leadership and party leadership was not reached before the vote was called and, in that confusion, we lost embarrassingly.
3. Again, when the Minority Caucus took a decision together to oppose E-Levy and briefed the party, the party gave its support, and all 136/7 members were present and united in opposition to the E-Levy. The 1st Deputy Speaker’s seat was seized, and some majority MPs got injured when the vote on the E-Levy was first called, and we stood firm as a caucus to oppose it. Three months later, the Supreme Court gave a curious ruling on our resistance mounted against the majority side. So when the E-Levy vote was called again, whether deliberate or a miscalculation, it was suggested by some lawyers amongst us, and supported by some senior members, to test the ruling of the Supreme Court by walking out in order to deny the majority the needed quorum to take the decision. I was one of the few against that walkout because I insisted to some of the lawyers and senior colleagues that the optics didn’t seem right. Alas, I was proven right, though I have never until now claimed vindication.
The media thought our walkout was contrived, and the majority went ahead and passed the E-levy. Some of our colleagues who gave the advice or supported it, perhaps to save face or to genuinely test the Supreme Court reasoning, went to court, and I believe the case is yet to even be called.
4. As a caucus, we decided among ourselves again to oppose the increase in VAT. We again briefed the party and elders, and they gave us their blessing. When the vote was called, we lost it by one vote because one of us, on health grounds, was abroad, but all others were present and stood to be counted.
5. On this occasion, the decision to vote against the ministerial nominations was first heard by many MPs in the media when the party issued the three-line whip. An Appointment Committee member, like me, also heard it in the media. I recall being asked by a journalist at the time if the party press release meant we would not be vetting the nominees. I didn’t have an appropriate response because I honestly did not know at the time.
Later, some of us were informed that it was a decision taken by the party Political Committee and, yet again, some in caucus leadership also mentioned to some colleagues that it wasn’t really a Political Committee decision but a decision by one of our senior colleagues which the Political Committee adopted. As a caucus, for some reason, I don’t recall that a meeting was ever called for us (MPs) and our caucus leaders to deliberate on how to execute the task. The last caucus meeting was with our presumptive flag-bearer (JM) and party leaders and elders for us to be reminded to ‘Save our Democracy’. No contribution was invited from the caucus members, and no member also requested to speak. Without any means or attempt to verify, we all left to Parliament believing that we were on the same page.
Therefore, in the case of three votes in 1, 3 & 4, above, we won one but lost two. 3 was lost on a technicality which is difficult to blame on one person or group of people, unless we can show that those who gave the advice to walkout and those who supported that advice did so deliberately knowing it was going to cost us. 4 was lost on health grounds unless again we can show that the absentee MP did so deliberately.
However, based on my experience during voting in 2 and 5 above, which we lost embarrassingly, the synergy between the party leadership and the caucus wasn’t perfect in both cases. So, instead of seeking to fix what makes it possible for traitors/witches to thrive on, we are focusing on the symptoms because that’s easy. That requires only some people, if they have ever disagreed with us or are not our buddies or for other reasons, to be put on the spotlight, declared guilty until proven innocent and the specks in their eyes plucked.
Andrew Roberts reminds us that, although the most common understanding of “leadership “ connotes inherent goodness, leadership is in fact completely morally neutral, a protean force of terrifying power that we must strive to orient towards moral ends.
I stand to be counted for loyalty and integrity. Enemies are not God!!!
Ghanaian fashion icon ‘Osebo the Zaraman’ known in real life as Richard Brown has conceded to embark on a fashion challenge with Jacob Freedom Caesar (Cheddar).
Osebo, who was declared the victor of the contest between himself and Ajagurajah, has been paired again to challenge Cheddar.
Several internet users, notably media celebrity Kofi Okyere Darko, better known online as KOD, have called for another battle between Cheddar and Osebo after Ajagurajah dropped out of the fashion competition.
Reacting to this, Osebo has accepted the new challenge which has since heightened on social media.
“I’m leaving Ghana ???????? for some time. I will come back to beef whoever you guys want me to, @iamfreedom is not a small fish to catch, I love him, I respect him and his high fashion sense. I’m going for some shopping I will come back soon,” he wrote on Instagram.
Addressing claims that he might not win this fashion battle because Cheddar is wealthier than him, Osebo stated that being a good fashionista isn’t about being rich or wearing expensive brands.
“To those of you who think this beef is about who is Rich and who wears expensive brands. Why didn’t you choose MR Kwame Despite and other rich men over me instead? Why me? Because we are talking about ‘combination is a calculation’; not who is richer. Remember being a fashionista is different from being a stylist, I’m not a coward when it comes to combination is a calculation and I’m ever ready for this beef period,” he added.
Cheddar, on the other hand, is yet to make a statement about the development.
A stunning young Ghanaian woman’s impressive TikTok video of her chopping vegetables with one hand has received a lot of positive feedback on social media.
Joyce Akosua Kudzeawu, who has over 248,000 followers on the video-based platform despite having a physical disability, does not let this hinder her from accomplishing great things.
It’s interesting to note that she graduated from the university with a degree in medical biochemistry and molecular biology, demonstrating that handicap should not be mistaken for incapacity.
In this popular video, Joyce can be seen cutting a bowl of different veggies into tiny pieces while sitting down while holding a knife between her left upper arm and breast.
Despite the possibility of cutting her fingers, she meticulously completes the task without accident.
Below are some of the comments gathered under the tree ending hilarious video…
@Thesaucee – I like her honesty, but it’s still giving inferiority complex
@CallmeladyK – Besides the looks, I think it’s the common sense he wanted to replace
officiallandlord – Hmm! Smart woman? I always say this though, we all need to learn how to spice up our marriages o. This is actually for both genders not only women on this table. Some people are just scared of communicating rightly with their partners. Spice it up for your partner to make the attraction last longer. She quickly discovered where she got it wrong but mind you, it might not even be what you are thinking of. A cheater will always be a cheater?. Package yourself to your best and leave the rest lobatan
Danksyexchange – Women always dress good and sexy in front of your husband whether your going out or your indoor with him.. It doesn’t mean he won’t still cheat but at least it helps a lot
Thekingmanofficial – With all due respect, you don’t have sense! Dem go send you go your mama house your eye go clear. Is this cruise or what??
A buss online has been sparked by a Nigerian woman who lives overseas saying she doesn’t want to be an independent woman again.
The young woman revealed this on social media in a brief video she posted, claiming that being an independent woman is extremely taxing and unpleasant.
She admitted in the short clip that she had always pictured herself working for her own money and having the freedom to live her life as she pleased without a guy interfering.
After experiencing the strain of living independently and in the diaspora, she claims she has made a U-turn and is now prepared to be a full-time housewife. She will, however, continue to receive a paycheck from her husband.
“I don’t want to be a strong, independent woman anymore” is how she tagged the video.
Since then, the video has drawn a lot of responses from viewers who have shared their opinions in the comments box.
Award-winning Gospel musician Ernest Opoku, has urged the public to be considerate on gospel singers because they are also flesh and blood.
He claims that when issues involving gospel musicians make headlines, the public is always harsh and quick to criticize, which always crushes his heart because they are similarly similar to the other artists.
Speaking in an interview on Sompa FM, he made those statements as he responded to some of his past scandals and controversies especially the famous one with actress Nayas.
He continued that the people in Ghana always see Gospel singers as superhumans or Angels but that isn’t the case because they are also just like any other person walking around the surface of the earth.
“The problem with most Africans is that, they see we Gospel musician as Angels but that is not true, we are just like any other person of course we are humans,” he said.
In another story, Ernest Opoku in a separate interview disclosed that he received a “BJ” from an unknown lady on a VIP bus from Kumasi to Accra.
The woman’s sole defence for her actions, according to Ernest Opoku Jr., was that she thought she was dreaming and that she was sorry.
In Al Jazeera’s Gold Mafia documentary, a Kenyan national who was named the top gold smuggler in Africa received the Lifetime Africa Achievement Prize in 2012 for exceptional humanitarianism and equity in Africa.
The Excellence Awards Foundation (EAF), also known as the Millennium Excellence Awards and founded by Ambassador Ashim Morton, presented the award to Kamlesh Pattni. The Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II serves as the foundation’s life patron.
The awards ceremony was held at the Presidency State House in Nairobi, Kenya on December 15, 2012 and attracted the leadership of the African Union (AU), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and very eminent dignitaries from countries across the continent.
Pattni was awarded alongside other Heads of State including the late President Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, who was conferred with a posthumous prize for democratic governance and development in Africa; President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, the prize for leadership, national cohesion and stability and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, who received the prize for nation building and African leadership.
At the time of his award, Kamlesh Pattni, was facing several counts of fraud in a court case after he was implicated in a scandal that robbed Kenya of 10% of its GDP in the 1990s.
Kamlesh Pattni was involved in the so-called Goldenberg scam, a gold smuggling operation that robbed Kenya of $600mn and led to charges of corruption against many members of then President Daniel Arap Moi’s government.
Pattni’s company, Goldenberg International, was granted an exclusive licence to export Kenyan gold, but instead, he allegedly smuggled gold from what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
After years of prosecution, Pattni was acquitted in 2013.
Pattni, who is now a self-proclaimed pastor and sometimes goes by the name Brother Paul, is now running a similar scheme in Zimbabwe from his base of operations in Dubai.
The revelation is part of Al Jazeera’s Gold Mafia, a four-part series investigating some of Southern Africa’s largest gold smugglers and money launderers.
A gold merchant exposed by Aljazeera, Alistair Mathias has confessed that he sneaks out of Ghana with $480 million tons of Gold every year.
In a recent investigation themed “Gold Mafia,” the international media exposed a group of criminals responsible for billions of dollars’ worth of money laundering and gold smuggling in Southern Africa.
The International media’s most recent investigation, Gold Mafia, Al Jazeera exposed a group of criminals responsible for billions of dollars’ worth of money laundering and gold smuggling in Southern Africa.
Al Jazeera’s latest investigation, Gold Mafia, has uncovered a band of criminals driving gold smuggling and money laundering worth billions of dollars in Southern Africa.
However, those involved in this gold smuggling syndicate have business networks that stretch across the continent and operate in many other countries including Ghana.
Alistair Mathias, described by the investigative reporters as a financial architect who builds money laundering schemes for corrupt politicians, was approached by undercover journalists posing as Chinese criminals to help them launder money from China.
While assuring the undercover reporters of his competence, he revealed that he has been smuggling $40million worth of gold from Ghana monthly, which is $480 million worth of gold annually.
“I’ve been doing it for about 13 years now, 14 years. In Ghana I do one ton. I do $40million every month out of Ghana. This region I do probably about 500 to one ton again. I do roughly about $70 to $80 million every month. We can export from Zambia. I can export from South Africa,” he told the reporters.
He then urged the undercover journalists to set up a company in Dubai that they could claim was involved in the gold trade in order to help them launder their money.
Al Jazeera has only released the first episode of the four-part investigative series into gold smuggling in Africa.
As earlier reported, hundreds of protesters have occupied a farm owned by the clan of former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta as nationwide demonstrations against the country’s high cost of living break out.
On the vast property outside of Nairobi, the invaders used power saws to fell trees and took hundreds of animals with them.
The vast plot of land will be used to build a luxury housing development.
At the time of the occurrence, there were no police or security personnel present.
Local journalists covering the invasion were also attacked by the mob, meanwhile, businesses near the farm have been shut down.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga called for nationwide protests over allegations that last year’s elections were stolen.
He also says President William Ruto has failed to address the high cost of living in the country.
Mr Odinga, a former prime minister, lost to Mr Ruto in the elections last August. He was backed by former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The eldest son of President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has announced that he will leave the army this year after nearly three decades of service.
The army commander, Muhoozi Kainerugaba tweeted the information.
“I will be retiring from the UPDF this year,” he tweeted.
He made a similar announcement on Twitter in March last year when he was the commander of land forces. But the army said it had not officially received Mr Kainerugaba’s retirement request.
His latest retirement remarks come days after he deleted a tweet announcing that he will stand for the presidency in 2026.
The tweeting general has not hidden his ambition to take over the top job from his 78-year-old father, who has led Uganda since 1986.
The Ugandan law does not allow serving soldiers to participate in politics.
